Loyola Marymount vs Pepperdine 1/20/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Pepperdine Waves and the Loyola Marymount Lions meet in college basketball action from the Gersten Pavilion on Thursday night.

The Pepperdine Waves will look to snap a four-game losing streak after an 82-63 loss to Portland last time out. Jan Zidek leads the Waves in scoring with 12.9 PPG along with 4.1 RPG while Houston Mallette has 11.3 PPG as the only other Pepperdine player to score in double figures so far this season. Maxwell Lewis has 9.9 PPG while Jade’ Smith has 9.5 PPG with 4.7 RPG and Keith Fisher Jr. has 8.6 PPG with a team-high 6.4 RPG as well to lead Pepperdine on the boards this season. Mike Mitchell Jr. has 8.2 PPG with 3.5 RPG and a team-high 4.8 APG as well to lead Pepperdine in assists. As a team, Pepperdine is averaging 69.2 PPG on 41.3% shooting from the field, 33.2% from three and 74.4% from the foul line while allowing 75.6 PPG on 45.5% shooting from the field and 33.5% from three this season.

The Loyola Marymount Lions will be out to build on their 70-58 win over Portland last time out. Eli Scott has a team-high 16.5 PPG and 6.7 RPG to lead the Lions in scoring and rebounding while also posting a team-high 3.5 APG as well this season. Joe Quintana has 13.3 PPG while Dameane Douglas has 10.8 PPG with 4.5 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for LMU so far this season. Keli Leaupepe has 8.7 PPG and 4.7 RPG as well this season for the Lions. As a team, Loyola Marymount is averaging 68.9 PPG on 45.9% shooting from the field, 33.1% from three and 72.6% from the foul line while allowing 69.9 PPG on 43.9% shooting from the field and 31.2% from three this season.

Pepperdine is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 road games while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 road games against a team with a winning home record. Loyola Marymount is 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400 and 6-16 ATS in their last 22 home games against a team with a road winning percentage below .400 while the over is 8-3-1 in their last 12 home games.

I get why LMU would be favored at home, and Pepperdine hasn’t been much to write home about as of late. However, the Lions barely scraped by Portland and outside of that, the Lions haven’t been anything special either really. The underdog’s covered 5 of the last 6 meetings in this matchup, and I think this could be another single-digit game between the two so give me Pepperdine and the points here.