Houston Baptist vs Incarnate Word 3/9/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Incarnate Word Cardinals and the Houston Baptist Huskies meet in college basketball action from the Leonard E. Merrell Center on Wednesday night.

The Incarnate Word Cardinals come into the conference tournament as the #8 seed following a 7-24 season including a 3-11 mark in conference play this season. RJ Glasper leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.7 PPG with 2.5 APG while Josh Morgan has 11.7 PPG so far this season. Charlie Yoder has 11.6 PPG while Johnny Hughes III has 11.7 PPG and Drew Lutz jas 10.3 PPG as well as a team-high 3.7 APG to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Incarnate Word up to this point in the year. As a team, Incarnate Word is averaging 67.1 PPG on 41.6% shooting from the field, 34.7% from three and 77.9% from the foul line while allowing 76.5 PPG on 49.3% shooting from the field and 36.8% from three this season.

The Houston Baptist Huskies come into the conference tournament as the #5 seed, finishing the year at 10-17 overall, including a 6-8 mark in conference play this season. Darius Lee leads the Huskies across the board with team-highs of 18.3 PPG, 8.3 RPG and 3.2 APG while Brycen Long has 10.8 PPG with 2.3 APG as the only other Houston Baptist player to score in double figures up to this point in the season. As a team, Houston Baptist is averaging 76.1 PPG on 44.6% shooting from the field, 32.8% from three and 71.6% from the foul line while allowing 77.1 PPG on 46.8% shooting from three and 37.6% from the foul line this season.

Incarnate Word is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 neutral site games and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400 while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Houston Baptist is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a favorite.

I get the case to be made for an underdog in these early round games, but the problem is that Incarnate Word was one of the worst teams in the Southland Conference this season and they’ve been owned by the Huskies in the past, including the two meetings this season. I’ll side with Houston Baptist to keep that dominance going with a win and cover here.