Mississippi State vs McNeese State Prediction 12-14-24 College Basketball Picks

The McNeese State Cowboys and the Mississippi State Bulldogs meet Saturday in college basketball action from Cadence Bank Arena. Here’s a Mississippi State vs McNeese State prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Mississippi State vs McNeese State pick.

McNeese State Cowboys Betting Preview

The Cowboys managed to win four of their first six versus College of Biblical Studies, North Texas, Illinois State and Longwood. After losses to Liberty and Santa Clara, McNeese State blew out LeTourneau.

Last Saturday versus LeTourneau, the Cowboys went into the second half with a five-point lead. McNeese State hit the gas from there on 60 more points for a 103-69 win. Christian Schumate led the scoring on 22 points and five rebounds.

Mississippi State Bulldogs Betting Preview

Over on the Mississippi State side, they beat West Georgia, Georgia State, SE Louisiana, Utah, SMU and UNLV before taking their lone loss to Butler. Since then it’s been wins over Pittsburgh and Prairie View.

Matched up against the Panthers, Mississippi State got off to a slow 44-44 start but finished on a 47-40 run for a 91-84 victory. Josh Hubbard was tops on 25 points, while Claudell Harris came off the bench for 21 points and four boards.

Why the Mississippi State Bulldogs will win

• Mississippi State has won each of its last 10 games against the Southland Conference.
• McNeese State has lost 19 of its last 20 Saturday games against non-Conference opponents.
• McNeese State has lost the first half in four of its last five games against the Southeastern Conference.

Why the McNeese State Cowboys will win

• McNeese State has won 30 of its last 34 games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• McNeese State has won the first half in seven of its last eight day games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Mississippi State vs McNeese State Prediction

I’ll stay with Mississippi State here. The Bulldogs could use a livelier performance than what they generated against Prairie View, though. In that one Mississippi State shot a nice 55.6 percent from the field, but allowed 56.4 percent on the other side along with 12 turnovers for 19 Panthers points. Still, it was an important win after a huge upset over Pittsburgh. Mississippi State has 77 or more points in all nine games so far.

As for McNeese State, they they had zero issues versus LeTourneau in their last outing, shooting a nice 69.5 percent from the field with 30 rebounds. The Cowboys have been pretty choppy when it comes to scoring this year, though; they’ve been below 69 points in four of the last six games. It’ll take a big push in order to keep pace with the Bulldogs on Saturday. I don’t think the Cowboys will quite get there.