The Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners and the UC San Diego Tritons meet Saturday in college basketball action from LionTree Arena. CSU Bakersfield is fresh off a Thursday matchup versus UC Riverside. The Roadrunners ended up with a six-point victory. As for the Tritons, they played UC Irvine in their Thursday game. UC San Diego would to on to lose by 16 points. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners
The Roadrunners stumbled out of the gate this year, posting a rough 5-11 stretch though their first 16 games. CSU Bakersfield didn’t get any better in the next five games, losing to CSU Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis and Hawaii in succession.
On Thursday versus UC Riverside, Cal State Bakersfield scored 33 points in the first half, 37 in the second and 12 in overtime for the 82-76 victory. Antavion Collum posted 31 points to lead the team and Travis Henson added 24 points with eight rebounds.
UC San Diego Tritons
Over on the UC San Diego side, they were a rough 6-10 through 16 games this year themselves. The Tritons managed a 3-3 run over the next six games with wins over Cal Poly, CSU Northridge and UC San Diego.
Matched up against UC Irvine in the Thursday game, the Tritons were up 37-33 going into the locker room. UC San Diego was drilled 43-23 in the second half however, and lost 76-60. Francis Nwaokorie was the lead scorer on 18 points and nine rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll probably lean UC San Diego here. You could make a case either way though, so I’m not touching it. The Tritons are just 1-3 in their last four games but for the most part they’ve been competitive against comparable teams lately. The last time these two squads met up was January 14 in a 56-52 CSU Bakersfield win at Icardo Center. The Roadrunners are on a sketchy 1-4 run since then, so both teams could use a good showing here. I like the Tritons slightly better cover-wise but it’s a toss-up.