The Saint Mary’s Gaels and the Gonzaga Bulldogs meet Saturday in college basketball action from McCarthey Athletic Center. Saint Mary’s is sitting at 20-5 this year so far. The Gaels beat San Diego in their last outing. As for Gonzaga, they’re 20-2 on the season and coming off a win over Pacific. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Saint Mary’s hit a 12-4 run to start the year, losing to only Wisconsin, Colorado State, San Diego State and BYU. The Gaels are on an 8-1 run since then (losing to Santa Clara) and took out San Diego in their last game.
On Thursday versus San Diego, the Gaels didn’t have a ton of issues. Saint Mary’s scored 42 points in the first half and 44 more in the second during an 86-57 victory. Top scorer Logan Johnson put up 16 points with nine rebounds.
Over on the Gonzaga side, their year started out at 7-2 with losses to Duke and Alabama along the way. The Bulldogs have won 13 straight games since then. They’ve taken out San Diego, BYU and Pacific in the last trio alone.
Matched up against Pacific on Thursday, Gonzaga didn’t have much trouble either. The Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 46-28 in the first half and 43-23 from there in an 89-51 blowout win. Rasir Bolton was the team’s top scorer with 20 points and four boards.
The Bulldogs are 4-1-1 ATS in the last six at home and 4-1-1 ATS in their last six after an ATS win. Gonzaga is 7-1-1 ATS in their last nine overall.
Meanwhile, the Gaels are 4-1 ATS in their last five road games and 5-1 ATS in their last six after an ATS win. The over is 7-1-1 in Saint Mary’s last nine overall.
PICK: This one’s tough, but I’m going to try Saint Mary’s. The Gaels offense has been humming along during this 8-1 stretch. They’ve hit 71 or more points in each one of those games and have really only had a couple of close calls along the way.
As for Gonzaga, there’s no denying how badly they’ve been destroying teams lately, and the scoring has been consistent the whole way. That said, I think Saint Mary’s has a strong enough offense to hang around in this one and power out a cover. It should be an interesting matchup and a great game to watch.