Portland State vs UC-Santa Barbara 12/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos and the Portland State Vikings meet in college basketball action from the Viking Pavilion on Saturday night.

The UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos will look to build on an 81-68 win over subdivision San Diego Christian last time out. Ajay Mitchell leads the Gauchos in scoring and assists with 13.6 PPG and 4.7 APG while Miles Norris has 13.2 PPG with 6.1 RPG and Josh Pierre-Louis has 10.8 PPG with 3.6 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for UCSB so far this season. Andre Kelly also has 9.9 PPG with a team-high 8.3 RPG to lead the Gauchos in rebounding up to this point in the season. As a team, UC-Santa Barbara is averaging 72.1 PPG on 48.6% shooting from the field, 33.3% from three and 66.1% from the foul line this season.

The Portland State Vikings will try to bounce back from a 78-75 road loss to Santa Clara last time out. Jorell Saterfield leads the Vikings in scoring with 15.5 PPG along with 4.3 RPG while Cameron Parker has 14.5 PPG with a team-high 5.4 APG to lead the Vikings in the assist category and Hunter Woods has 10.9 PPG with a team-high 5.4 RPG to lead the Vikings on the boards while also rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers for Portland State up to this point in the season. As a team, Portland State is averaging 81.1 PPG on 45.1% shooting from the field, 34.7% from three and 74.7% from the foul line this season.

UC-Santa Barbara is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 Saturday games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games following a win. Portland State is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games following an ATS win and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 Saturday games while the over is 11-2 in their last 13 games following an ATS win.

I get the case to be made for the Gauchos being favored on the road here as this is a solid UCSB team. However, while the Gauchos have taken on some decent competition, this Gauchos team still has a bad loss to Northern Arizona and a beatdown loss to Duquesne on the road this season. Portland State’s somewhere in the middle, but they beat a power conference foe twice in Oregon State and have done their best work at home this season. Not a game I’m rushing to bet, but I lean towards Portland State and the points here.