UCLA Bruins (7-10) vs. Arizona State Sun Devils (10-6)
January 17, 2024 9:00 pm EDT
The Line: Arizona State Sun Devils -2.5; Over/Under: +127.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The UCLA Bruins and the Arizona State Sun Devils meet Wednesday in college basketball action from ASU Wells Fargo Arena. UCLA is fresh off a win over Washington that improved the Bruins to 7-10 overall. As for Arizona State, they dropped to 10-6 this year with a loss to Washington last Thursday. Let’s get into our UCLA vs Arizona State prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
UCLA Bruins
The Bruins got off to a nice 5-2 start this year, but it’s been a rough 2-8 stretch since then. Outside of wins over Oregon State and Washington, the losses came to Villanova, Ohio State, CSU Northridge, Maryland, Oregon, Stanford, California and Utah in that stretch.
In the matchup with Washington on Sunday, the Bruins went into the second half with an eight-point lead 30-22. UCLA kept the pressure on from there with a 43-39 run and took the victory 73-61. Leading scorer Adem Bona posted 22 points with one rebound, one assist and one steal.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Over on the Sun Devils’ side, they opened the season on a 6-5 run with losses to Mississippi State, BYU, San Diego, TCU and Northwestern. Arizona State hit a win streak over Stanford, California, Utah and Colorado before taking a loss to Washington last week.
Matched up against Washington on Thursday, the Sun Devils were up 34-33 in the locker room. Arizona State lost the handle in the second half however, getting outscored 49-33 in an 82-67 defeat. Jamiya Neal was the team’s top scorer with his 14 points and five rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE UCLA VS ARIZONA STATE PREDICTION
I’ll stick with Arizona State. The Sun Devils need a bounce-back game after their rough second half versus Washington, and this is a pretty good spot to do it. Arizona State ended up shooting just 23.5 percent from 3-point range (4-of-17) in that defeat and got outmuscled on the boards 40-29. The good news is that the Sun Devils had hit 71 or more points in four straight games prior to that.
As for UCLA, they put together a nice win over Washington on Sunday but they’d been below 60 points in four straight games before that victory. Unless the Bruins have unlocked some consistency somehow, I don’t think they’ll cover in this one if the Sun Devils play well.
