The Western Carolina Catamounts and the Duke Blue Devils meet Saturday in college basketball action from Cameron Indoor Stadium. Here’s a Duke vs Western Carolina prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Duke vs Western Carolina pick.
Western Carolina Catamounts Betting Preview
The Catamounts took a major step back last season following the heights of the 22-10 run from 2023-24. Western Carolina managed to go just 8-22 overall with a rough 4-14 result in the Southern Conference. That effort would put the Catamounts ahead of only the Citadel (at a futile 0-18) in the conference standings. The Catamounts managed consecutive victories just once during the season, taking out East Tennessee State and the Citadel before a four-game losing streak to close the regular season. Those came versus Chattanooga, Samford, Wofford and Mercer. In the first round of the SoCon Tournament, WCU lost to Mercer 67-66 on March 7.
This year the Catamounts opened up their campaign with a tricky road matchup versus Cincinnati. Western Carolina was drilled 49-28 in the first half and didn’t get any closer on a 45-35 run from there in a 94-63 blowout road loss. Tops in scoring during the losing effort was Cord Stansberry with 23 points and three rebounds in 30 minutes of work. Julien Soumaoro added 13 points with five boards, and Marcus Kell finished on 12 points with nine rebounds.
Duke Blue Devils Betting Preview
Over on the Duke side, they kicked off last season’s run ranked No. 7 in the nation. Duke would go on to exceed that number, jumping to No. 3 on the way to a 35-4 overall run. The Blue Devils went a stellar 19-1 in the very tricky ACC, giving the team a regular-season conference championship by a single game over Louisville and Clemson. Duke rolled through the ACC Tournament with a championship game win over the Cardinals, then took out Mount St. Mary’s, Baylor, Arizona and Alabama on the way to the Final Four round of the NCAA Tournament. Duke’s season would finish there though, as the Devils lost 70-67 versus Houston on April 5.
Duke opened up their 2025-26 campaign with a matchup versus Texas at home. The Blue Devils were in trouble at the half with a 33-32 deficit, but woke up after the break. Duke hit a 43-27 run the rest of the way in a 75-60 comeback victory. Topping the scorers was Isaiah Evans with 23 points in 33 minutes of work on the floor. Cameron Boozer added a double-double on 15 points, 13 rebounds and two assists in 36 minutes, while Patrick Ngongba put up 10 points with four boards.
Western Carolina Catamounts @ Duke Blue Devils Betting Trends: November 8, 2025
Why the Duke Blue Devils will win
- Duke has won each of its last 22 games at Cameron Indoor Stadium against non-AP-ranked opponents.
- Western Carolina has lost each of its last seven road games against non-Conference opponents.
- Duke has won the first half in each of its last 10 games against non-Conference opponents at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Why the Western Carolina Catamounts will win
- Western Carolina has won the first half in eight of its last 10 day games against non-Conference opponents.
Duke vs Western Carolina Prediction
I’ll lean toward Duke, but I’m probably staying away. This one’s going to come down to a simple matter of the Blue Devils’ margin of victory, which should be sizable. In any case, Duke started a bit slowly in their win over Texas but ended up looking pretty good with a nice well-rounded effort from several different guys on the team. The Blue Devils were outfoxed on the boards (38-32) and in the paint (26-24) but shot 42.3 percent overall to the Longhorns’ 32.2 percent. The 10 turnovers to Texas’ 16 helped as well. All things considered it was a pretty decent game despite the spotty first half.
As for Western Carolina, they didn’t play too badly up front versus Cincinnati, notching a 33-33 tie in rebounding with an eight-point deficit in the paint. The 19 turnovers and 35.9 percent shooting prevented any sort of competition on the floor, though. The Catamounts have another tough matchup on the road in store Saturday, and I don’t think they’ll get anywhere close.