Rice vs Incarnate Word 12/16/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Incarnate Word Cardinals and the Rice Owls meet Thursday in college basketball action from Tudor Fieldhouse. Incarnate Word is 2-8 so far this year. The Cardinals are coming off a win over Grambling State. As for Rice, they’re sitting at 6-4 and fresh off a win over Houston Baptist. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Incarnate Word kicked off the year with seven straight losses to Texas State, Baylor, Concordia TX, Texas Tech, Southeast Missouri State, Montana State and Portland. The Cardinals are 2-1 since then with wins over Our Lady of the Lake and Grambling State. 

In the Grambling State game back on Saturday, the Cardinals got off to a 37-19 lead at the break and hung on for the 72-62 win. RJ Glasper was the top scorer with 21 points, and Johnny Hughes put up 14 points with 10 rebounds. 

Over on the Rice side, their year started out at 4-1 with a lone loss to Houston. After that came losses to Oakland, Fordham and Texas State. In the last pair the Owls have managed wins over Jarvis Christian and Houston Baptist. 

Matched up against Houston Baptist, the Owls scored 51 points in the first half and 37 more in the second during an 88-73 victory. Tops in scoring was Quincy Olivari with 27 points, and Carl Pierre added 21 points with five rebounds. 

The Owls are 10-1-1 ATS in their last 12 home games and 1-8 ATS in their last nine Thursday games. The over is 7-0 in Rice’s last seven overall. 

Meanwhile, the Cardinals are 4-9-1 ATS in their last 14 overall and 3-1-1 ATS in their last five after an ATS win. The over is 9-1 in Incarnate Word’s last 10 overall. 

PICK: I’m going to stick with Rice here. The Owls are coming off a nice performance against Houston Baptist, shooting 50 percent from the field and 15-of-31 (48.4 percent) from 3-point range. Rice collected 20 team assists there but were also out-rebounded 43-31. 

As for Incarnate Word, they posted one of their best outings of the year against Grambling State in their last game. The Cardinals have hit 72 or more points in two of their last three and can score fairly well in comparable matchups this year. Still, if Rice is on point they should be able to bag a cover in this one.