The Furman Paladins and the Mercer Bears meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Hawkins Arena. Furman is 12-5 overall this year. The Paladins beat East Tennessee State in their last matchup on Saturday. As for Mercer, they’re currently 7-10 after a loss to Western Carolina in their last game. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Furman managed a 7-3 run through their first 10 games, losing to only Penn State, Old Dominion and High Point. The Paladins are 5-2 since then with wins over Stephen F. Austin, Anderson SC, VMI, the Citadel and East Tennessee State.
Matched up against East Tennessee State on Saturday, the Paladins jumped out to a 37-23 edge by the break. Furman kept the pace with 33 points from there and won 70-56. Marcus Foster led the team with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Over on the Mercer side, they were 5-5 after 10 games this year with losses to East Carolina, Georgia State, Florida State, Towson and Kennesaw State. The Bears are 2-5 in their last seven with losses to FGCU, Samford, Chattanooga, Wofford and WCU.
In the Western Carolina game on Saturday, Mercer took a 31-23 deficit into the second half. The Bears were drilled 42-22 from there and lost in a blowout 73-45. Shawn Walker was the only team player in double-figures with 13 points.
PICK: I’m going to stick with Furman. The Paladins are posting some pretty good offensive numbers over this current 5-1 stretch. Furman has hit 70 or more points in all five wins and I don’t see Mercer putting up too much of a fight on defense here. Speaking of the Bears, they played a pretty miserable game against an average Western Carolina team on Saturday. Mercer hasn’t cracked 52 points in any of their last three outings so I don’t have too much confidence in them right now.