
California Baptist vs Utah Valley Prediction 1/23/25 College Basketball Picks Today
Utah Valley (13-6) vs. California Baptist (9-9)
January 23, 2025 10:00 pm EDT
The Line: California Baptist -1.5; Over/Under: 140.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Utah Valley Wolverines and the California Baptist Lancers meet Thursday in college basketball action from Dale E and Sarah Ann Fowler Events Center. Here’s a Cal Baptist vs Utah Valley prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Cal Baptist vs Utah Valley pick.
Utah Valley Wolverines Betting Preview
The Wolverines’ season began a pretty spotty run, as the team would fall below .500 back in mid-December. Utah Valley has since hit a nice win streak, however, and their record is much improved. The first 11 games were a 5-6 stretch with wins over Western Colorado, UTEP, Murray State, West Georgia, and North Dakota. The losses otherwise came versus North Dakota, Samford, North Dakota State, Stanford, James Madison, and Jacksonville State in that time. Since then Utah Valley has an eight-game win streak, taking out Idaho State, Weber State, Bethesda University, Abilene Christian, Grand Canyon, Cal Baptist, Texas-Arlington, and Utah Tech in that time for a 13-6 overall record through the first 19 outings of the season.
In the Utah Tech game over the weekend, the Wolverines entered the second half with a 42-40 deficit. Utah Valley turned it on from there, hitting a 56-38 run on the way to a big win 96-80. Tanner Toolson was tops in scoring with 18 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Dominick Nelson added 15 points with four rebounds and one assist, while Trevan Leonhardt put up 14 points with four assists, two rebounds, and three steals in 26 minutes of work.
California Baptist Lancers Betting Preview
Over on the Cal Baptist side, they’ve had quite the choppy season so far. Following some nice stretches and some relatively ugly runs, the Lancers have managed to hang on for a .500 overall record at this point. Cal Baptist opened on a 5-3 stretch with wins over Incarnate Word, Kennesaw State, Long Island U, Eastern Washington, and Fresno State. The losses otherwise were versus UC Riverside, Northern Colorado, and SMU. Following a 2-4 stretch that contained wins over Jackson State and Fresno State among losses to UCF, San Diego State, Middle Tennessee and UC Irvine, Cal Baptist hit a 2-2 run. The losses in that time were versus Utah Valley and Tarleton State, sandwiched between wins over Seattle U and Abilene Christian. The result so far has been a 9-9 overall run through the Lancers’ first 18 games this year.
Matched up against Abilene Christian on Saturday, the Lancers posted a 28-24 deficit in the first half. Cal Baptist turned it on with a 36-26 run the rest of the way, however, notching a comeback win 60-54 in the end. Dominique Daniels topped the team on 17 points with two rebounds and six turnovers. Also in double-figures was Adam Moussa with 11 points, seven boards, and four assists, while Kendal Coleman had 10 boards with four points in 21 minutes.
Why the California Baptist Lancers will win
- The home team has won five of Utah Valley’s last six games.
- Utah Valley has lost the first half in 13 of its last 15 road games against the Western Athletic Conference.
Why the Utah Valley Wolverines will win
- Utah Valley has won each of its last eight games.
- California Baptist has lost each of its last six Thursday games.
- California Baptist has lost the first half in each of its last 10 night games against the Western Athletic Conference.
Cal Baptist vs Utah Valley Prediction
I’m going to stay with Utah Valley. The Wolverines are looking pretty good during this eight-game win streak, despite a bit of a slow start versus Utah Tech in their last outing. Utah Valley ended up with 55.2 percent shooting and a dominant 35-19 rebounding edge (15-5 offensive) in that one but did cough up 13 turnovers along the way. Still, it was another nice offensive performance for the Wolverines. They’ve it 70 or more points in six installments of this current win streak.
As for Cal Baptist, they shot a meager 40.8 percent from the field with 17 turnovers in their eventual win over Abilene Christian. The Lancers did quite well on the boards though, posting a 45-29 edge. Cal Baptist hasn’t hit 70 points in five straight games though (a 2-3 stretch), so if Utah Valley gets going I don’t see the Lancers keeping any kind of pace.