Missouri vs Central Arkansas Prediction Basketball Picks 12-30-23

The Central Arkansas Bears and the Missouri Tigers meet Saturday in college basketball action from Mizzou Arena. Central Arkansas is fresh off a Thursday meeting with Oklahoma. In that one, the Bears took a loss to drop to 3-11 overall. As for Missouri, they’ve lost three straight at 7-5 on the year. The Tigers fell to Illinois in their latest matchup. Let’s get into our Central Arkansas vs. Missouri prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Central Arkansas Bears 

The Bears only managed one win in their first nine games, falling to Tulsa, AR-Pine Bluff, Vanderbilt, Southeast Missouri State, Kansas State, Eastern Michigan, New Orleans, Loyola Marymount and Hawaii. After wins over Little Rock and Eastern Illinois, Central Arkansas lost again to Western Illinois. 

In the matchup versus the Sooners on Thursday, the Bears were down 50-42 at the break. Central Arkansas posted another eight-point deficit in the second half and ended up losing 88-72. Johannes Kirsipuu led the team with his 16 points and five rebounds, while Ubong Etim added 13 points and eight boards. 

Missouri Tigers 

Over on the Missouri side, they posted a solid 7-2 run over their first nine games, taking out AR-Pine Bluff, SIU Edwardsville, Minnesota, South Carolina State, Loyola MD, Pittsburgh and Wichita State along the way. Since then it’s been three tough losses to Kansas, Seton Hall and Illinois. 

Matched up against the Illini back on December 22, the Tigers were out of their league. Missouri was down 49-24 at the break and kept the pace from there in a 97-73 blowout defeat. Sean East was the team’s top scorer with his 18 points, two rebounds and two assists in the losing effort. 

ANDREW’S FREE CENTRAL ARKANSAS VS MISSOURI PREDICTION 

I’ll probably just stay with Missouri in this one. The line’s a bit thick, though. The Tigers have been through a gauntlet of tricky teams in the last three games, and have an 0-3 record to show for it. Missouri didn’t shoot great against Illinois (39.2 percent) in their last game, and got out-rebounded 51-35. The good news is that the Tigers will score pretty well here, as Central Arkansas has been giving up a ton of points this year. I like Missouri to bounce back and post a dominant effort in a cover on Saturday.