UC Irvine vs Hawaii Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 1/19/23

The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and the UC Irvine Anteaters meet Thursday in college basketball action from Bren Events Center. Hawaii is 14-4 overall this year. The Warriors beat CSU Northridge in their last game. As for UC Irvine, they’re 12-6 on the season following a loss to UC Santa Barbara on Monday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 

Hawaii went 11-3 over their first 14 games this year. The losses in that time came to Yale, Texas A&M-Commerce and UNLV. The Warriors have gone 3-1 since then with wins over UC San Diego, Long Beach State and CSU Northridge. 

On Monday in the CSU Northridge matchup, the Warriors were up 33-17 by halftime. Hawaii was outscored 34-25 in the second but still hung on for the 58-51 win. Both Bernardo da Silva (11 points; 12 rebounds) and Samuta Avea (10 points; 11 rebounds) doubled up. 

UC Irvine Anteaters 

Over on the UC Irvine side, they went 9-5 to start out the year with losses to Pepperdine, SDSU, Fresno State, Santa Clara and Harvard. The Anteaters are also 3-1 in their last four with wins over Long Beach State, CSUF and CSU Northridge.

The Anteaters took on UC Santa Barbara on Monday. UC Irvine had a 32-29 lead going into the second half but were outscored 44-33 from there in a 73-65 loss. Dawson Baker was the leading scorer with his 17 points and five rebounds. 

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll probably stick with Hawaii in this one. The Warriors have won nine of their last 10 games and they’re playing really well right now. Hawaii has hit 72 or more points in five of those games, so they’ve been getting it done in both high-scoring and low-scoring matchups lately. As for UC Irvine, they had a bad second half against a talented UCSB team in their last outing. The Anteaters have hit 70 or more points in five of their last six games however, so we could be in for some fireworks here. Should be a fun matchup to watch.