Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs Bethune-Cookman 1/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats and the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions meet in college basketball action from the H.O Clemmons Arena on Monday night.

The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats will look to build on a 62-60 win over Mississippi Valley State last time out. Joe French leads the Wildcats in scoring with 15.1 PPG along with 3.5 RPG while Kevin Davis has 12 PPG and 8.9 RPG in eight games for BC so far this season. Marcus Garrett has 9.3 PPG with 3.5 RPG and Dylan Robertson’s got 8.8 PPG with 5.9 RPG while Mikey West has a team-high 2.4 APG to lead the Wildcats in assists this season. As a team, Bethune-Cookman is averaging 60.7 PPG on 40.3% shooting from the field, 29.3% from three and 70% from the foul line while allowing 68.9 PPG on 43.8% shooting from the field and 32.5% from three this season.

The Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions will hope to bounce back from a 71-66 OT loss to Florida A&M last time out. Shawn Williams leads UAPB in scoring and assists with 14.7 PPG and 3.7 APG while Kylen Milton has 11.8 PPG with 3.5 RPG. Dequan Morris has 11.7 PPG while Brandon Brown has 10.5 PPG and a team-high 8.1 RPG to lead the Golden Lions on the glass and round out the group of double-digit scorers for Arkansas-Pine Bluff this season. Trey Sampson also has 9.9 PPG and 4.4 RPG as well on the year for the Golden Lions. As a team, Arkansas-Pine Bluff is averaging 63.3 PPG on 38.9% shooting from the field, 28.6% from three and 71.5% from the foul line while allowing 78.8 PPG on 50.1% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three this season.

Bethune-Cookman is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a win and 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 Monday games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 road games. Arkansas-Pine Bluff is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 4-1-1 in their last 6 games overall.

I get why you’d make a case for either team as this is truly a coin flip type of game, and maybe I’d lean towards Bethune-Cookman here because they have the better defense. However, while APB isn’t a great defensive team, both sides are in the bottom 10% of the country in terms of scoring average per game this season and I kind of struggle to see how this game gets up into the 130s. I see this ending as a 63-61 type of game that hangs out in the 120s, but not this high. Give me the under here.