UTSA vs UTRGV 12/17/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
UTRGV Vaqueros (4-7) vs. UTSA Roadrunners (6-4)
December 17, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: UTSA Roadrunners -4.5 ; Over/Under: 151
(Get latest betting odds)
The Texas-Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros and the UTSA Roadrunners meet Friday in college basketball action from UTSA Convocation Center. UTRGV is 4-7 this year. The Vaqueros are fresh off a loss to Texas Southern. As for the Roadrunners, they’re 6-4 so far and beat Sam Houston in their last outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
UTRGV started out the year on a 4-2 clip, falling to Arizona and Northern Arizona along the way. Over the last five games the Vaqueros have struggled. In that stretch they’ve recorded losses to Illinois, Texas A&M-CC (twice), Texas and Texas Southern.
In Tuesday’s matchup versus Texas Southern, the Vaqueros fell behind 32-21 after the first half. UTRGV got better from there with 39 points, but couldn’t keep up in a 70-60 loss. RayQuan Taylor led the team with his 16 points and six boards.
Over on the UTSA side, they went 3-3 over their first six games with wins over Trinity TX, Denver and IUPUI. Since then the Roadrunners have been on a 3-1 run with wins over Lamar, St. Mary’s Texas and Sam Houston.
Matched up against Sam Houston back on Saturday, the Roadrunners jumped out to a 42-24 lead at halftime but had to hang on for the 78-73 win. Dhieu Deing was the leading scorer for UTSA with 26 points and three rebounds.
The Roadrunners are 45-21-2 ATS in their last 68 at home and 2-7-1 ATS in their last 10 Friday games. The over is 5-2 in UTSA’s last seven overall.
Meanwhile, the Vaqueros are 2-7-1 ATS in their last 10 road games and 1-4 ATS in their last five Friday games. UTRGV is 0-8-1 ATS in their last nine after an ATS loss.
PICK: I’m going with UTSA, but probably staying away from this one. The Roadrunners are coming off a pretty solid game against Sam Houston, shooting 47.4 percent from the field with 36 rebounds and 11 team assists. UTSA has scored well over their last four games, hitting 71 or more in each game (with a 3-1 record).
As for the Vaqueros, they haven’t hit 70 points in any of their last three, and they’ve allowed 70 or more in each of their last two. If UTSA can hit that number here I think they’ll be fine on a cover.
