Mercer vs Samford 1/5/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Samford Bulldogs and the Mercer Bears meet in SoCon college basketball action from the Hawkins Arena on Wednesday night.

The Samford Bulldogs will try to bounce back from an 81-49 loss to Furman last time out. Ques Glover leads the Bulldogs in scoring and assists with 19.3 PPG and 4.1 APG while Jermaine Marshall has 11.7 PPG with a team-high 8.8 RPG to lead the Bulldogs on the glass. Jaden Campbell has 11 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Samford so far this season. As a team, Samford is averaging 74.5 PPG on 42.5% shooting from the field, 33.2% from three and 71.9% from the foul line while allowing 72.8 PPG on 44.2% shooting from the field and 32.3% from three this season.

The Mercer Bears will try to rebound after a 69-65 loss to Troy in their last game. Felipe Haase leads the Bears in scoring and rebounding with 14.5 PPG and 5.8 RPG while Jalen Johnson has 14.2 PPG with 5.3 RPG. Neftali Alvarez has 13.9 PPG with a team-high 3.6 APG to lead the Bears in assists and James Glisson III has 11.5 PPG and 5.5 RPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Mercer up to this point in the season. As a team, Mercer is averaging 71.8 PPG on 44.4% shooting from the field, 34.6% from three and 75.4% from the foul line while allowing 69.8 PPG on 44.1% shooting from the field and 35.3% from three this season.

Samford is 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 road games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 7-0 in their last 7 Wednesday games. Mercer is 2-11 ATS in their last 13 home games against a team with a road winning percentage above .600 and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home games while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games overall.

I get Mercer being favored at home, but we’ve seen the Bulldogs play some of their best ball of the season on the road, already owning road wins over Ole Miss and Oregon State. The loss to Furman was a bit unsettling, but Mercer hasn’t had the same punch they’ve had in past years and I’m just not in a spot to feel comfortable laying points with them, even at home. I’ll take my chances with Samford and the points here.