Niagara vs Mount St. Mary’s 12/31/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers and the Niagara Purple Eagles meet Saturday in college basketball action from Gallagher Center. This game was originally scheduled for Friday, but was pushed back due to the weather. Mount St. Mary’s is 5-8 overall this year. The Mountaineers lost to Howard in their last game. As for Niagara, they’re 6-5 overall following a loss to Binghamton in their most recent appearance. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Mount St. Mary’s kicked off the year with a 3-3 run, beating McDaniel, Cal Poly and Pacific. The Mountaineers have since gone just 2-5 with losses to Navy, Rider, American, Robert Morris and Howard along the way. 

In the Howard game back on December 21, the Mountaineers went into the break down 31-29. Mount St. Mary’s hit a 33-32 advantage from there but lost 63-62. Dakota Leffew was tops in scoring on 23 points with six rebounds. 

Over on the Niagara side, they opened up on a 3-3 run as well with wins over Central Arkansas, Stetson and D’Youville. The Eagles are 3-2 in their last five, taking victories over Quinnipiac, Eastern Michigan and Binghamton. 

In the December 21 game versus Binghamton, the Eagles came out of the break with a 34-22 edge. Niagara trailed 45-39 from there but hung on for the 73-67 win. Noah Thomasson was the lead team scorer on 27 points with four assists and four rebounds. 

PICK: I’ll probably take Niagara in this one. We should have a pretty good matchup on our hands regardless, though. The Eagles had a sketchy second half in their last game versus Binghamton but still came away with the victory. It was a promising sign of improving offense after four straight games with 67 or fewer points. As for Mount St. Mary’s, they haven’t been past 65 points in any of the last five games but should match up fairly well here. I like this one to be competitive, with Niagara powering out an eventual cover.