Merrimack vs St. Francis-Pennsylvania College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 2/5/21

The St. Francis (PA) Red Flash and the Merrimack Warriors meet in college basketball action from Hammel Court on Friday afternoon.

The St. Francis (PA) Red Flash will try to rebound after a 68-62 loss to Merrimack in their last outing. Ramiir Dixon-Conover has a team-high 15.1 PPG and 4.5 APG to go along with 5.2 RPG while Myles Thompson has 11.1 PPG with 5.5 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for St. Francis coming into this game. Maxwell Land has 9.2 PPG and Bryce Laskey has 8.9 PPG while Mark Flagg has 8.7 PPG and a team-high 6.2 RPG this season. As a team, St. Francis (PA) is averaging 70.6 PPG on 43.6% shooting from the field, 32.9% from 3-point range and 71% from the foul line while allowing 75.6 PPG on 45.6% shooting from the field and 30.4% from 3-point range this season.

The Merrimack Warriors will look to build on their win over St. Francis (PA) from Thursday. Jordan Minor leads the Warriors in scoring and rebounding with 13.3 PPG and 9.4 RPG while Mikey Watkins has 12.2 PPG with a team-high 3.4 APG as the only other Merrimack player to average double-digits in scoring up to this point in the season. Mykel Derring and Ziggy Reid each have 9+ PPG this season with Reid also chipping in 4.7 RPG as well on the year. As a team, Merrimack is averaging 67.8 PPG on 44.6% shooting from the field, 30.6% from 3-point range and 68.3% from the foul line while giving up 69.2 PPG on 43.6% shooting from the field and 39.3% from 3-point range this season.

St. Francis (PA) is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 road games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 road games against a team with a winning home record. Merrimack is 8-2 ATS in their last 10 home games and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 14-5-1 in their last 20 games following a win.

The low line with Merrimack at home is tempting considering that they’ve been solid at home and the Red Flash have had issues on the road. However, this line is suspiciously low, and we’ve seen in these back-to-backs all season long that the team that drops the first meeting bounces back in the second meeting more often than not. I think someone knows something. Give me St. Francis (PA) and the free bucket here.