Valparaiso vs Evansville 3/3/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
Evansville Aces (6-23) vs. Valparaiso Beacons (13-17)
March 3, 2022 9:30 pm EDT
The Line: Valparaiso Beacons -6 / Evansville Aces +6; Over/Under: -129.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Evansville Aces and the Valparaiso Beacons meet in college basketball action from the Enterprise Center on Thursday night.
The Evansville Aces come into the conference tournament as the bottom #10 seed, finishing the year 6-23 overall and 2-16 in conference play. Shamar Givance leads the Aces in scoring and assists with 13.8 PPG and 3.8 APG while Jawaun Newton has 13.3 PPG with a team-high 5.6 RPG to lead the Aces on the glass and to make up the other half of the pair of double-digit scorers for Evansville up to this point in the season. As a team, Evansville is averaging 59.2 PPG on 39.6% shooting from the field, 32.9% from three and 71.1% from the foul line while allowing 70.4 PPG on 49.3% shooting from the field and 37.7% from three this season.
The Valparaiso Beacons will come into the conference tournament as the #7 seed, finishing 13-17 overall and 6-12 in conference play. Kobe King’s tallied 14.2 PPG in 21 games while Ben Krikke has 14.5 PPG in 27 games for the Beacons this season. Sheldon Edwards has 11.3 PPG and Kevion Taylor has 12.9 PPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Valparaiso so far this year. As a team, Valparaiso is averaging 70.8 PPG on 45.9% shooting from the field, 33.4% from three and 75.2% from the foul line while allowing 71 PPG on 45.7% shooting from the field and 35.4% from three this season.
Evansville is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall. Valparaiso is 11-2 ATS in their last 13 games following a loss by 20 or more points and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games following an ATS loss while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400.
I get the case to be made for a team catching a fair number of points in these one and done tournament scenarios. However, Evansville has been brutal away from home this season and even with Valparaiso missing some guys, I don’t see the Aces having enough in the tank to get the job done here. Valparaiso, even banged up, is the better team playing better basketball, so give me Valpo laying the points here.
