UMass vs Fairfield 12/19/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Fairfield Stags and the UMass Minutemen meet Sunday in college basketball action from Mullins Center. Fairfield is currently 8-3 on the year. The Stags beat Fairleigh Dickinson in their last game. As for the Minutemen, they’re 6-5 so far and coming off a loss to North Texas. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Fairfield started out the year on a 3-3 run, taking out Medgar Evers, Sacred Heart and Stony Brook along the way. Since then the Stags have won five straight over Canisius, Niagara, Holy Cross, William & Mary and Fairleigh Dickinson. 

In the Fairleigh Dickinson matchup, the Stags took a 44-27 lead into halftime and never looked back during a 72-54 win. Chris Maidoh put up 13 points with four rebounds, and Taj Benning added 12 points with six boards. 

Over on the UMass side, they hit a 3-3 run out of the gate this year as well. The Minutemen beat UMBC, Penn State and UNC Greensboro in that stretch. UMass then won three straight before consecutive losses to Northeastern and North Texas. 

Matched up against North Texas, the Minutemen were outscored 39-27 in the first half. UMass couldn’t crawl back in an eventual 66-57 loss. Both Noah Fernandez and CJ Kelly notched 13 points apiece with a combined six rebounds and 10 assists. 

The Minutemen are 24-7-1 ATS in their last 32 at home and 21-6-2 ATS in their last 29 at home. The over is 7-1 in UMass’ last eight overall. 

Meanwhile, the Stags are 10-1 ATS in their last 11 road games and 16-5 ATS in their last 21 overall. Fairfield is 4-0 ATS in their last four after an ATS win. 

PICK: I’m going to stay with the Stags. Fairfield has been on a nice run over their last five games, scoring 70 or more points in each. In their last three, the Stags have held opponents to 59 points or fewer as well. Overall, the team has been pretty competitive this year and the offense has been solid. 

As for UMass, they’ve been scoring well this year themselves (outside of the North Texas game) and I think they’ll put up a good total here. We should have a high-scoring competitive matchup on our hands in this one, and I think Fairfield can power out the cover.