Duquesne vs Rhode Island 12/31/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Rhode Island Rams and the Duquesne Dukes meet Saturday in college basketball action from Palumbo Center. Rhode Island is 4-8 on the season so far. The Rams lost to Georgia State in their last game. As for Duquesne, they’re coming off a Wednesday game versus Dayton. In that one the Dukes took a 12-point loss. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Rhode Island managed a 2-4 run in their first six games, beating only Stony Brook and Illinois State. The Rams are 2-4 since then as well, taking losses to Boston College, Providence, Brown and Georgia State. 

In the Georgia State game back on December 18, the Rams held a slim 36-35 halftime lead. Rhode Island was outscored 40-30 from there and lost 75-66. Leading team scorer Brayon Freeman put up 21 points with four rebounds.

Over on the Duquesne side, they lost game two to Kentucky 77-52 but otherwise came out of the gate with a nice 7-1 run. The Dukes hit losses to Marshall and New Mexico State after that, then beat DePaul, Indiana State and Winthrop in succession. 

On Wednesday versus Dayton, the Dukes were down 37-32 by halftime. Duquesne scored just 25 points in the second half and limped to a 69-57 loss. Jimmy Clark was the lead team scorer on 15 points and eight rebounds. 

PICK: I’ll probably stay with Duquesne. The Dukes played pretty poorly against a talented Dayton team in Wednesday’s game however, so they’ll need a good bounce-back effort here. Duquesne has hit 74 points or more in two of the last three games; I think they’ll perform better in this one. 

As for Rhode Island, they had a bad second half against a mediocre Georgia State team in their last outing. That said, the Rams have hit 74 or more points in three of the last five games. If Rhode Island can get some offense going early they’ll hang around here for a while but I don’t think they’ll cover.