Elon vs James Madison 1/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The James Madison Dukes and the Elon Phoenix meet in college basketball action from the Schar Arena on Monday afternoon.

The James Madison Dukes will be looking to build on their 95-91 OT win over William & Mary last time out. Vado Morse leads the Dukes in scoring with 13.1 PPG along with 2.4 APG while Takai Molson has 11.8 PPG with 4.7 RPG and a team-high 2.5 APG this season. Charles Falden has 11.1 PPG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for JMU this season while Justin Amadi has 9.6 PPG and 5.1 RPG and Alonzo Sule has 8.4 PPG and a team-high 6 RPG to lead the Dukes on the glass. As a team, James Madison is averaging 79.1 PPG on 48.4% shooting from the field, 34.7% from three and 69.5% from the foul line while allowing 67.2 PPG on 42.6% shooting from the field and 31.5% from three this season.

The Elon Phoenix will look to bounce back after a 59-54 loss to Towson in their last game. Darius Burford has a team-high 12.4 PPG while Hunter McIntosh has 11.7 PPG with 2.9 APG to make up the pair of double-digit scorers for Elon up to this point in the season. Torrence Watson also has 9.1 PPG and Zac Ervin also has 8.6 PPG while Michael Graham has a team-high 6 RPG to lead the Phoenix on the glass. As a team, Elon is averaging 67.9 PPG on 42.7% shooting from the field, 36% from three-point range and 74.4% from the foul line while allowing 74.2 PPG on 43.3% shooting from the field and 36.6% from three this season.

James Madison is 9-1 ATS in their last 10 games against a team with a losing record and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 road games against a team with a losing home record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Elon is 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games overall and 2-5 ATS in their last 7 home games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the argument that could be made for Elon here, as this line looks super weird and Phoenix has a tendency to shoot the three better at home while JMU gives up a lot of threes on the road. However, James Madison’s been one of the most efficient shooting teams in the CAA during conference play according to KenPom, and I think this is a spot where fishy or not, you have to back the better team in JMU laying the bucket.