Pepperdine vs Pacific 1/7/23 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Pacific Tigers and the Pepperdine Waves meet Saturday in college basketball action from Firestone Fieldhouse. Pacific is fresh off a Thursday matchup against San Diego. In that game the Tigers eked out a close victory. As for Pepperdine, they played Santa Clara in their Thursday game. The Waves would go on to fall by 10 points. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Pacific was sitting at just 3-7 after 10 games this year. The Tigers beat only North Dakota State, North Dakota and UC Davis in that stretch. Pacific went 5-2 in their next seven games, losing to only CSUEB and BYU. 

On Thursday versus San Diego, Pacific held a slim two-point lead at the break. The Tigers maintained form in the second and won it 84-82. Keylan Boone doubled up in the win with 27 points and 12 rebounds. 

Over on the Pepperdine side, they sat at 5-5 after 10 games with wins over Rice, Alabama State, Vanguard, UC Irvine and Northern Arizona. The Waves hit a 2-3 run after that with losses to Hawaii, Iona and Gonzaga. 

Matched up against Santa Clara on Thursday, the Waves were outscored 42-37 in the first half and 47-42 in the second half during an 89-79 loss. Pepperdine’s leading scorer was Maxwell Lewis with 20 points and four assists. 

PICK: I’ll probably take a stab on Pepperdine here. The Waves have lost three straight outings and seven of their last nine games, so they’re reeling right now. That said, Pepperdine is still scoring pretty well; they’ve hit 70 or more points in seven of those nine outings and should put up a solid total here also. As or Pacific, they’ve hit 74 or more in three of their last four games so it wouldn’t be surprising to see a fairly high total here. I like Pepperdine to power out the cover in a fun game to watch.