LIU vs Wagner 12/29/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Wagner Seahawks and the LIU Sharks meet in college basketball action from the Barclays Center on Thursday afternoon

The Wagner Seahawks will look to build on an 89-55 win over subdivision Gwynedd Mercy last time out. DeLonnie Hunt leads the Seahawks in scoring and assists with 11.8 PPG and 3.2 APG as the lone double-digit scorer for Wagner this season while Brandon Brown has a team-high 8.4 RPG as well this season. As a team, Wagner is averaging 66.3 PPG on 40.2% shooting from the field, 39.1% from behind the arc and 62.8% from the foul line this season.

The LIU Sharks will hope to build on their 95-58 win over SUNY-Purchase last time out. Marko Maletic leads the Sharks in scoring with 17.6 PPG while Jacob Johnson has 11.8 PPG with a team-high 5.4 RPG to lead the Sharks in rebounding this season. Andre Washington has 14.5 PPG in two games so far and R.J. Greene has 10.7 PPG with 3.8 RPG and a team-high 3.7 APG to lead the Sharks in assists and to round out the group of double-digit scorers for LIU up to this point in the season. As a team, LIU is averaging 68.8 PPG on 42.4% shooting from the field, 34.2% from three and 63.2% from the foul line this season.

Wagner is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 road games and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games following a win while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games overall. LIU is 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 while the under is 6-2-1 in their last 9 Thursday games.

I get the case to be made for either side here, but I’m looking at the under. Wagner usually plays solid defense and I just don’t trust LIU to be able to do enough offensively to get us up and over this number. I lean Wagner as well as I just feel the Seahawks are the better team on both ends of the floor, but I’ll side with the under as the stronger play.