USC vs Long Beach State 12/14/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Long Beach State Beach and the USC Trojans meet in college basketball action from the Galen Center on Wednesday night.

The Long Beach State Beach will look to rebound from back-to-back losses after a 76-74 loss to Sacramento State last time out. Joel Murray leads the Beach in scoring and assists with 14.4 PPG and 4.4 APG while Marcus Tsohonis has 12.4 PPG as only other double-digit scorer for Long Beach State up to this point in the season. Lassina Traore also has a team-high 8 RPG to go along with his 9.9 PPG to lead the Beach in rebounding. As a team, Long Beach State is averaging 71.6 PPG on 46.3% shooting from the field, 29.5% from three and 60.6% from the foul line this season.

The USC Trojans will try to add to their current three-game win streak after a 64-50 win over Cal State-Fullerton last time out. Boogie Ellis leads the Trojans in scoring with 14.4 PPG along with 3 RPG and 2.4 APG while Drew Peterson has 13.8 PPG with team-highs of 7.7 RPG and 6 APG to lead the Trojans in rebounding and assists as the only other double-digit scorer for USC this season. Joshua Morgan also has 6.4 RPG and Reese Dixon-Waters has 9.7 PPG and 3.1 RPG. As a team, USC is averaging 69.9 PPG on 45.3% shooting from the field, 30.6% from three and 69.7% from the foul line this season.

Long Beach State is 0-3-1 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 road games against a team with a winning home record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 Wednesday games. USC is 5-18 ATS in their last 23 home games and 3-13 ATS in their last 16 home games against a team with a losing road record while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall.

I get the case to be made for the Trojans being favored at home, but this is a Long Beach State team that always tends to schedule up and take these in-state rivalry games against the Pac-12 teams a little bit more seriously than the rest. USC’s had trouble covering these decent-sized favorite spots this season and I think the Beach could be in to putting a bit of a scare in USC here. Give me Long Beach State and the points.