The UC Riverside Highlanders and the Oregon Ducks meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Matthew Knight Arena. UC Riverside is 6-3 overall this year. The Highlanders beat Idaho in their last game. As for Oregon, they’re 5-5 on the season and coming off a win over Nevada. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
UC Riverside won five of their first seven games this year over LMU, Occidental, Weber State, Wright State and Abilene Christian. Since then it’s been a loss to California Baptist and a win over Idaho on Sunday.
In the Idaho game, UC Riverside scored 38 points in each half on the way to a 76-74 victory. Leading the team in scoring was Zyon Pullin with 26 points and five rebounds. Lachlan Olbrich added 18 points with three rebounds as well.
Over on the Oregon side, it’s been an up-and-down season. The wins have come versus Florida A&M, Montana State, Villanova, Washington State and Nevada. The loss have come to UC Irvine, Houston, UConn, Michigan State and UCLA.
Back on Saturday versus Nevada, Oregon went into the locker room with a 36-29 edge. The Ducks hit a 42-36 run in the second half for a 78-65 victory. Will Richardson notched a triple-double in the win with 19 points, 11 assists and 10 boards.
PICK: I’ll stick with Oregon. The Ducks have had their difficulties this year, but they’re coming off a nice effort against a pretty good Nevada team. Oregon shot 45.8 percent from the field and 40.7 percent (11-of-27) from 3-point range in that one along with a 44-36 rebounding advantage. As for UC Riverside, they haven’t played too badly over their last half dozen games. The Highlanders have hit 70 or more points in five of those six and should hang around for a while in this one. I don’t think they’ll keep pace with the Ducks for the whole game, though.