Grand Canyon vs Pepperdine 12/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Pepperdine Waves and the Grand Canyon Lopes meet in college basketball action from the GCU Arena on Saturday night.

The Pepperdine Waves will try to rebound from back-to-back losses after a 67-64 OT loss to UC-Santa Barbara last time out. Maxwell Lewis leads the Waves in scoring with 18.7 PPG along with 5.9 RPG and 2.8 APG while Houston Mallette has 14.2 PPG with 5.2 RPG and 3.2 APG this season. Mike Mitchell Jr. has 12.7 PPG with a team-high 4 APG to leads the Waves in the assist department to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Pepperdine up to this point in the year. Jevon Porter also has 9.6 PPG and a team-high 7.2 RPG to lead the Waves in rebounding this season. As a team, Pepperdine is averaging 78.7 PPG on 47.2% shooting from the field, 41.9% from three and 70.3% from the foul line this season.

The Grand Canyon Lopes will also be out to bounce back from back-to-back losses after a 60-58 loss to North Texas last time out. Rayshon Harrison leads the Lopes in scoring with 13 PPG while Jovan Blacksher Jr. has 12 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Grand Canyon so far this season. Gabe McGlothan has 9.6 PPG with a team-high 8.1 RPG to lead Grand Canyon in rebounding with Josh Baker has a team-high 3.1 APG to lead the Lopes in the assist department up to this point in the season. As a team, Grand Canyon is averaging 70.8 points per game on 44.1% shooting from the field, 34.2% from behind the arc and 70.6% from the foul line this season.

Pepperdine is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 Saturday games and 2-7 ATS in their last 9 road games against a team with a home winning percentage above .600 while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 road games against a team with a winning home record. Grand Canyon is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 home games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games following an ATS win while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 road games against a team with a winning home record.

I get the case to be made for either side here, but I’m on the over in this one. This Grand Canyon team isn’t just playing defense anymore, they can score as well while Pepperdine has always had a history of playing in higher-scoring games more often than not. I think this is a game where both teams end up in the high-60s or low-70s here, so give me the over.