Mercer vs Morehead State 12/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Morehead State Eagles and the Mercer Bears meet in college basketball action from the Hawkins Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The Morehead State Eagles will look to build on back-to-back wins after a 74-71 road win over Georgia Southern last time out. Alex Gross leads the Eagles in scoring and rebounding with 12.8 PPG and 7.1 RPG while Mark Freeman has 12.1 PPG with a team-high 3.4 APG to cap off the pair of double-digit scorers for Morehead State up to this point in the season. As a team, Morehead State is averaging 73.3 PPG on 43.7% shooting from the field, 31.7% from three and 71.8% from the foul line this season.

The Mercer Bears will hope to bounce back from a 67-62 loss to Florida Gulf Coast last time out. Jalyn McCreary leads the Bears in scoring with 14.1 PPG and 4.7 RPG while Kamar Robertson has 12.8 PPG as well this season. Luis Hurtado Jr. has 11.3 PPG with 5.8 RPG and a team-high 5.7 APG while Shawn Walker Jr. has 10.4 PPG to cap off the scoring in double figures for Mercer this season. David Craig also has a team-high 6.4 RPG to lead the Bears on the glass. As a team, Mercer is averaging 76.5 PPG on 48.7% shooting from the field, 37% from three and 69.4% from the foul line this season.

Morehead State is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following an ATS win and 3-8 ATS in their last 11 Saturday games while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall. Mercer is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the under is 10-1 in their last 11 home games.

I get the reasoning for Mercer being favored here, but the Bears have had issues covering the number for the better part of the season and I’m just not in a position where I really want to be laying points with the Bears. Morehead State’s had their ups and downs, but they’ve been competitive in spots and have done well against teams near their level of competition and I think at worst they could keep this one within a couple of buckets. Give me the Eagles and the points here.