The Duquesne Dukes and the Richmond Spiders meet Saturday in college basketball action from Robins Center. Duquesne is 12-4 overall this year. The Dukes beat VCU in their last outing. As for Richmond, they’re 8-7 on the season and coming off a win over George Washington. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Duquesne went 7-3 over their first 10 games, losing to only Kentucky, Marshall and New Mexico State. The Dukes are 5-1 since then with wins over DePaul, Indiana State, Winthrop, Rhode Island and VCU.
In the VCU game on Wednesday, the Dukes took a 37-22 lead into the second half. Duquesne was outscored 48-42 from there but hung on for the 79-70 win. Jimmy Clark led the team on 26 points with six rebounds.
Over on the Richmond side, they hit a 5-5 run over their first 10, beating VMI, Northern Iowa, Temple, Drake and FDU. The Spiders are 3-2 since then, beating Bucknell, Coppin State and George Washington.
In the George Washington game, the Spiders trailed by two points going into the second half. Richmond hit a 36-24 run from there and emerged with a 73-63 win. Tyler Burton topped the team with 26 points and seven rebounds.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Duquesne. The Dukes are coming off a solid effort against a good VCU team, and they’ve hit 72 or more points in four of their last five outings (all victories). Richmond has been on a nice scoring run themselves; they’ve hit 73 or more in three of the last four. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a fairly high-scoring game here, and ultimately I don’t think the Spiders will be able to keep Duquesne at bay.