Cal State-Bakersfield Roadrunners (13-18) vs. UC Riverside Highlanders (15-17)
March 13, 2024 9:00 pm EDT
The Line: UC Riverside Highlanders -2; Over/Under: +133.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners and the UC-Riverside Highlanders meet Wednesday in the college basketball Big West Tournament First Round at the Dollar Loan Center. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a Cal State Bakersfield vs. UC-Riverside prediction.
Cal State Bakersfield Team Preview
The Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners come into the conference tournament as the 8-seed, making the cut for the Big West tournament after finishing 13-18 overall with an 8-12 mark in Big West conference play. Kaleb Higgins leads the Roadrunners in scoring and assists with 17.3 PPG and 3.6 APG as the lone double-digit scorer for CSU-Bakersfield up to this point in the season. Marvin McGhee III has 8.4 PPG with 3.5 RPG while Modestas Kancleris has a team-high 6 RPG to lead the Roadrunners on the glass so far this season. As a team, CSU-Bakersfield is averaging 68.4 PPG on 43% shooting from the field, 31.3% from three and 72.1% from the foul line this season.
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UC-Riverside Team Preview
The UC-Riverside Highlanders come into the conference tournament as the 5-seed, finishing the year 15-17 overall, including 10-10 in conference play. Barrington Hargress leads the Highlanders in scoring and assists with 12.4 PPG and 4.5 APG along with 3.2 RPG while Isaiah Moses has 12.1 PPG with 3.9 APG and 3 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for UC-Riverside so far this season. Nate Pickens has 9.3 PPG with 3.6 RPG while Kyle Owens has 8.8 PPG with a team-high 5.5 RPG to lead the Highlanders on the glass so far this season. As a team, UC-Riverside is averaging 70.4 PPG on 39.7% shooting from the field, 31.6% from three and 71.4% from the foul line this season.
Cal State Bakersfield vs. UC-Riverside Prediction
I’m on UC-Riverside here. The Highlanders have come into the conference tournament in much better form than the Roadrunners who edged their way into the 8-team field by the skin of their teeth if we’re being honest. The Roadrunners also have offense issues that make it hard to trust this team to score enough to keep themselves in games and that’s my concern here as well. I’ll side with UC-Riverside in this one.
