The UC-Irvine Anteaters and the Santa Clara Broncos meet in college basketball action from the Leavey Center on Thursday night.
The UC-Irvine Anteaters will be out to build on an 83-71 road win over South Dakota last time out. DJ Davis leads UC-Irvine with 16.1 PPG while Dawson Baker has 13.6 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for UC-Irvine so far this season. Bent Leuchten has 7.3 PPG with 6.4 RPG to lead the Anteaters on the glass while Pierre Crockrell II has a team-high 4.7 APG as well this season. As a team, UC-Irvine is averaging 80.1 PPG on 47.4% shooting from the field, 41.2% from three and 69.6% from the foul line this season.
The Santa Clara Broncos will hope to build on a 78-75 win over Portland State last time out. Brandin Podziemski leads the Broncos in scoring, assists and rebounding with 19.2 PPG, 3.2 APG and 9 RPG while Carlos Stewart has 13.6 PPG and Keshawn Justice has 11.7 PPG with 3.9 RPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Santa Clara so far this season.. As a team, Santa Clara is averaging 72.8 PPG on 41.8% shooting from the field, 32.9% from three and 72.9% from the foul line this season.
UC-Irvine is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 road games and 1-8 ATS in their last 9 Thursday games while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Santa Clara is 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games following an ATS loss while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall.
I get the case to be made on either side here as this is shaping up to be a great game on Thursday. That being said, UC-Irvine has been the more efficient team on both ends of the floor against the tougher schedule, and I just trust them more even on the road as this Anteaters squad has beaten a decent Oregon team on the road and gave a really good San Diego State team all they could handle on the road a week and a half ago. Santa Clara hasn’t had a very convincing victory at home against a good opponent this season, and I think they’re up against it here. Give me the Anteaters.