Hawaii vs UC Irvine College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 1/31/21

The UC-Irvine Anteaters and the Hawaii Warriors meet in college basketball action from the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night.

The UC-Irvine Anteaters will look to add to their current seven game winning streak after a 53-51 win over Hawaii in the first half of the back-to-back last time out. Collin Welp leads the Anteaters in scoring with 12.2 PPG to go along with 6.5 RPG while Dawson Baker has 11.5 PPG and Brad Greene has 10.7 PPG with a team-high 7.5 RPG to lead the Anteaters on the glass and to round out the trio of double-digit scorers for UC-Irvine coming into this game. As a team, UC-Irvine is averaging 74.8 PPG on 46.4% shooting from the field, 34% from 3-point range and 75.9% from the foul line while allowing 61.6 PPG on 38.8% shooting from the field and 31% from 3-point range this season.

The Hawaii Warriors will look to rebound from a heartbreaking loss to UC-Irvine in the first half of the double-dip last time out. James Jean-Marie leads the Warriors in scoring with 13.6 PPG along with 4.3 RPG while Justin Webster has 12.4 PPG and Casdon Jardine has 11.9 PPG with a team-high 6 RPG to lead Hawaii in rebounding this year. Junior Madut has 10.4 PPG with 2.7 APG and 4.7 RPG to cap off the group of double-digie scorers for Hawaii up to this point in the year. Mate Colina has 6.7 PPG and 5.9 RPG while Biwaii Bayles has 5.1 PPG and 2.6 APG to lead the Warriors in assists this season. As a team, Hawaii is averaging 72.1 PPG on 44.3% shooting from the field, 33.8% from 3-point range and 66.9% from the foul line while allowing 66.8 PPG on 44.3% shooting from the field and 29.9% from 3-point range this season.

UC-Irvine is 7-0-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite while the over is 6-2 in their last 8 road games. Hawaii is 0-3-1 ATS in their last 4 home games and 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 home games against a team with a losing road record. The favorite is 3-0-1 ATS in the last 4 meetings between these two teams.

The Anteaters were able to get the win in the opener, but it wasn’t without pushback as the Warriors fought. What we did see though were tired legs for UC-Irvine and probably due to the long flight to Hawaii from Irvine. UCI has had a chance to acclimate their bodies to the time change but I think we still see a sluggish effort from the Anteaters who just want to get back home. On the other hand I think Hawaii battles and that this is going to be a low-scoring battle so I’ll side with the under once again here.