Lamar Cardinals (7-7) vs Incarnate Word Cardinals (5-9)
2024-01-08 20:00:00 EDT
The Line: Betting Odds: Lamar Cardinals -7 -- Over/Under: 158
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The Incarnate Word Cardinals and the Lamar Cardinals meet Monday in college basketball action from Montagne Center. Incarnate Word is currently 5-9 following a loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in their latest matchup. As for Lamar, they’re .500 through 14 games so far and coming off a win over Northwestern State. Let’s get into our Incarnate Word vs. Lamar prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Incarnate Word Cardinals
Incarnate Word started the year at 3-2 overall, then hit a losing streak to UTSA, Jacksonville State, Bethune-Cookman, Northern Arizona and Rice. It’s been a 2-2 run for the Cardinals since then with wins over UIC and Our Lady of the Lake mixed with losses to UTRGV and Texas A&M-CC.
Matched up against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in their Saturday game, the Cardinals went into the locker room with a nine-point deficit. Lamar didn’t end up getting any closer than that and fell 75-65. Tops in scoring was Josiah Hammons, who came off the bench with 19 points and two boards.
Lamar Cardinals
Over on the Lamar side, they managed a shaky 5-7 run over their first dozen outings. The losses came to SMU, Pacific, Longwood, UTSA, Sam Houston, Southern Miss and LSU in that stretch. Since then it’s been victories versus Paul Quinn and Northwestern State in consecutive games.
On Saturday versus Northwestern State, Lamar posted a fairly tepid first half with a 39-33 edge. The Cardinals got going from there on a 51-37 second-half run and won 90-70. Leading the team with a double-double was Adam Hamilton on 18 points and 12 rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE INCARNATE WORD VS LAMAR PREDICTION
I’ll probably take a stab on Lamar. Probably also not touching it; there’s not a lot to get excited about here if you’re not a fan of either team. That said, Lamar posted a good effort versus a struggling Northwestern State squad in their last outing with 50.8 percent shooting and 42 rebounds. That makes 70 or more points in 11 of the last 12 games for Lamar, but they’re also giving up quite a bit on the other side. If Incarnate Word’s offense is on point here, we should see a pretty high-total finish. I like Lamar to eke out the cover in the end, but you could probably call it either way.
