East Tennessee State vs Mercer 1/19/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Mercer Bears and the East Tennessee State Buccaneers meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Freedom Hall Civic Center. Mercer enters this one at 11-7 so far. The Bears beat the Citadel in their last game on Monday. As for East Tennessee State, they’re 11-8 on the year and coming off a win over Samford. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Mercer hit a 7-6 run over their first 13 games this year, then had a couple of postponements in late December/early January. It’s been a 4-1 run since then for the Bears. They’ve taken out Samford, VMI, UNC Greensboro and the Citadel in that stretch. 

In the game Monday versus the Citadel, Mercer scored 32 points in the first half and 39 more from there in a 71-64 win. Tops in scoring was James Glisson with 16 points and nine rebounds. Felipe Haase doubled on 14 points and 12 boards as well. 

Over on the East Tennessee State side, they went 7-3 over their first 10 games this year. Things have been sketchy since then however; the Bucs have a 4-5 record in their last nine with wins over Georgia, VMI, Western Carolina and Samford. 

In the Samford game on Saturday, the Buccaneers utilized a 42-39 second half to pull off the 88-85 victory. Jordan King was tops with 19 points and three rebounds. David Sloan doubled up on 12 points and 10 assists as well. 

The Buccaneers are 2-5 ATS in their last seven Wednesday games and 2-8 ATS in their last 10 after an ATS win. The under is 5-2 in ETSU’s last seven after a straight-up win. 

Meanwhile, the Bears are 0-4 ATS in their last four Wednesday games and 5-2 ATS in their last seven after a straight-up win. Mercer is 4-1 ATS in the last five after an ATS win. 

PICK: I’m going to stick with Mercer. I could probably go either way on this one, though. It should be a good matchup. In any case, the Bears have scored pretty well over this 4-1 streak, hitting 71 or more points in three of those outings. Mercer is probably going to have to hit 70-plus to win this game and it should finish as a fairly high total. I like this one to be a shootout (as several of ETSU’s recent games have been) with the Bears eking out a cover late.