The UTEP Miners and the Liberty Flames meet Thursday in the college basketball C-USA Tournament Quarterfinals at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a UTEP vs. Liberty prediction.
UTEP Team Preview
The UTEP Miners come into the conference tournament as the 5-seed, finishing the year with an overall record of 16-15 including a 7-9 mark in C-USA conference play. Tae Hardy leads the Miners in scoring with 15.2 PPG along with 2.8 RPG and 2.6 APG while Zid Powell has 11 PPG with 4.9 RPG and a team-high 3.2 APG to lead UTEP in assists this season. Otis Frazier III has 11.1 PPG with 4.7 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for UTEP so far this season. As a team, UTEP is averaging 73.2 PPG on 44.8% shooting from the field, 32% from three and 68.4% from the foul line this season.
Liberty Team Preview
The Liberty Flames come into the conference tournament as the 4-seed, finishing the year with an overall record of 18-13 including a 7-9 mark in C-USA conference play. Kyle Rode leads the Flames in scoring with 14.3 PPG along with 5 RPG while Brody Peebles has 10.8 PPG with 1.9 RPG and Kaden Metheny has 13.2 PPG. Zach Cleveland has 12 PPG with 6.2 RPG and 4 APG to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Liberty up to this point in the year. Colin Porter has 8.1 PPG with 3.9 APG while Joseph Venzant has 6.1 RPG this season.. As a team, Liberty is averaging 74.4 PPG on 46.8% shooting from the field, 36.6% from three and 66.7% from the foul line this season.
UTEP vs. Liberty Prediction
I’m on Liberty here. The Flames are simply the better team and Liberty looked bad in the second meeting against UTEP this season. The Flames are a better team than what they showed in that game, and on a neutral floor, I expect them to show it here. Give me the Flames.