Rider vs Monmouth College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 3/4/21

The Monmouth Hawks and the Rider Broncs meet in college basketball action from the Rider Alumni Gymnasium on Thursday night.

The Monmouth Hawks will look to rebound from an 88-65 loss to Iona last time out. Deion Hammond leads the Hawks in scoring with 17.4 PPG and 3.6 APG while George Papas has 12.9 PPG and Melik Martin has 11.9 PPG and a team-high 5.8 RPG this season to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Monmouth up to this point in the year. Samuel Chaput also has a team-high 3.2 APG for the Hawks this season. As a team, Monmouth is averaging 77.6 PPG on 42.7% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three while allowing 74.8 PPG on 41.8% shooting from the field and 31.8% from three this season.

The Rider Broncs will look to build on a 78-65 win over Saint Peter’s last time out. Dwight Murray Jr. leads the way for Rider with 14.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG and 4.3 APG as the Broncs’ lone double-digit scorer this season. Dontrell McQuarter has 9.4 PPG with 4.7 RPG while Christian Ings has 8.6 PPG with 2.2 APG as well. Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson also has 8.1 PPG and 5.2 RPG as well for the Broncs on the year. As a team, Rider is averaging 67.3 PPG on 42.6% shooting from the field and 34.3% from three while allowing 74.2 PPG on 46% shooting from the field and 35.7% from three this season.

Monmouth is 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games following a loss and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 7-2 in their last 9 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400. Rider is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 home games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 Thursday games. The home team is 10-1 ATS in the last 11 meetings between these two teams.

I’ve said before that my view on the MAAC is that it’s a lot of defense and missed shots, resulting in a ton of unders. However, these are actually two of the higher-scoring teams in the MAAC and I just think it’s best to jump on this total before it goes any higher so I’ll take the over in this spot as I could see us getting into the 160s range here.