The UCF Knights and the Cincinnati Bearcats meet Saturday in college basketball action from Fifth Third Arena. UCF is 13-8 overall this year and coming off a loss to Temple last weekend. As for Cincinnati, they played Tulsa on Wednesday. In that one, the Bearcats took a blowout win. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
UCF Knights
UCF managed to go 12-4 over 16 games this year, losing to UNC Asheville, Miami-FL, Missouri and Houston along the way. The Knights are 1-4 since then, with losses to Tulane, South Florida, Houston and Temple in their most recent quartet.
In the Temple game last weekend, UCF scored 29 points in the first half, 33 in the second and eight in overtime during a 77-70 defeat. Both Lahat Thioune and Ithiel Horton topped the team on 13 points apiece with 10 combined rebounds.
Cincinnati Bearcats
Over on the Cincinnati side, they lost to Northern Kentucky, Arizona, Ohio State, Xavier and Temple in their first 16 outings. The Bearcats hit a 3-3 run after that with wins over East Carolina, SMU and South Florida in that time.
Back on Wednesday versus Tulsa, the Bearcats stormed out to a 36-18 halftime lead. Cincinnati kept it up with a 45-37 second half and won 81-55. Jeremiah Davenport put up 20 points and Landers Nolley doubled on 13 points and 13 rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I might take a stab on UCF here. Sure, the Knights are on a rough stretch right now with four losses in their last four games. That said, UCF has still been scoring well. They’ve hit 69 or more points in six straight outings, so if they can get off to a good start I think the Knights will hang around. Cincinnati has seen some tough competition lately so they’ve been all over the place scoring-wise. That said, I like a fairly high total here with UCF getting into a cover. It’ll be an interesting matchup regardless.