UCLA vs UC Riverside Prediction 12/23/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The UC Riverside Highlanders and the UCLA Bruins meet Tuesday in college basketball action from Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Here’s a UCLA vs UC Riverside prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best UCLA vs UC Riverside pick.

UC Riverside Highlanders Betting Preview

The Highlanders opened the season with a couple of wins, then took three straight losses versus New Mexico, North Dakota and Cal Baptist from there. UC Riverside beat San Diego and Grambling in the next two, and they’ve since gone 2-4 with losses to Utah Tech, UC Irvine, BYU and St. Thomas Minnesota in that time. Over 13 games so far that gives the Highlanders a 6-7 record this year.

In the St. Thomas MN matchup on Saturday, the Highlanders trailed by three points going into the second half. UC Riverside was outscored by another 11 points from there and lost the game 92-78 in the end. Leading the team in scoring was Osiris Grady with 21 points and two assists. BJ Kolly added 16 points with seven rebounds and three assists while Andrew Henderson had 13 points with four rebounds and four assists.

UCLA Bruins Betting Preview

Over on the UCLA side, they won five of their first six games this year, taking out Eastern Washington, Pepperdine, West Georgia, Sac State and Presbyterian. It’s been a 4-2 stretch since then with losses to Cal and Gonzaga mixed among wins over Washington, Oregon, Arizona State and Cal Poly. Over 12 games this year that makes for a 9-3 overall record for UCLA.

Matched up against Cal Poly back on Friday the Bruins were down by two at the break. UCLA woke up in the second half on a 65-42 run however, eventually powering out the win 108-87 in comeback fashion. Skyy Clark topped the team with 30 points, and Donovan Dent doubled up on 16 points and 11 assists. Tyler Bilodeau had 24 points with eight rebounds in the win as well.

Why the UCLA Bruins will win

• UCLA has won each of its last 14 games against non-Conference opponents at Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescon.
• UC Riverside has lost each of its last four away games when playing with a rest disadvantage.
• UCLA has won the first half in 20 of its last 21 games at Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescon against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Why the UC Riverside Highlanders will win

• UC Riverside has won six of its last seven road games following a road loss.

UCLA vs UC Riverside Prediction

I’ll stay with the Bruins. UCLA started slowly versus Cal Poly in their last outing but eventually shot a nice 57.4 percent from the field with 26-of-29 (89.7 percent) from the line, a 42-24 edge on points in the paint and just eight turnovers. The Bruins did get out muscled on the boards 28-21, however. UCLA is 4-1 in their last five games (with a lone loss to Gonzaga), scoring 72 or more points in all of those outings.

As for UC Riverside, they couldn’t keep up with a pretty good St. Thomas, MN team despite shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 15-of-16 (93.8 percent) from the line. The Highlanders also had a 24-20 edge on the boards, but committed 13 turnovers and allowed 60.7 percent shooting on the other side. UC Riverside has 78 or more points in three of the last four games (a 2-2 run) so we should have a pretty nice total in this one if all goes well.