The Duquesne Dukes and the Santa Clara Broncos meet Saturday in college basketball action from Orleans Arena. Duquesne took out Bradley on Monday for their fourth win in a row, improving the Dukes to 8-2 overall. As for Santa Clara, they’ve lost five of their last seven games and fell to 8-5 with a loss to San Jose State in their last matchup. Let’s get into our Duquesne vs. Santa Clara prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Duquesne Dukes 

The Dukes managed a 4-2 run over their first six games this year, falling to Princeton and Nebraska with wins otherwise over Cleveland State, Charleston, Stony Brook and Rider. Duquesne has since beaten UC Irvine, Marshall, Saint Peter’s and Bradley in their latest quartet. 

In the matchup with Bradley on Monday, the Dukes faced a 40-37 deficit going into the second half. Duquesne rallied on a 32-27 run from there and took the comeback win 69-67. Leading the charge was Jimmy Clark with 21 points, four assists, five rebounds and two steals in the victory.

Santa Clara Broncos

Over on the Broncos’ side, they were sitting pretty on a 6-0 run to start the season. It’s been a sketchy 2-5 stretch in the last seven games, though. In that time Santa Clara has taken out only Menlo and Washington State with losses otherwise to Ohio State, California, New Mexico, Utah State and San Jose State. 

In their Wednesday game versus San Jose State, the Broncos were down by three points at the break. Santa Clara was able to keep the pace from there but ended up losing a close one 81-78. Topping the team in the losing effort was Carlos Marshall with 29 points, five rebounds and six assists. Santa Clara is 8-5 in the WCC and has the same record as St. Mary’s.  

ANDREW’S FREE DUQUESNE VS SANTA CLARA PREDICTION 

I’ll stay with Duquesne. Probably not touching this one, though. The Dukes didn’t play all that great against a sketchy Bradley team in their last outing, shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from 3-point range. Duquesne got out-rebounded 37-33 as well, but the Braves’ 19 turnovers certainly didn’t hurt. The Dukes haven’t reached 70 points in three of the four games during this current win streak, so a little more offense would be nice. Santa Clara has given up 81 or more points in each of their five losses this season, so Duquesne should have plenty of scoring opportunities.