The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders and the Mercer Bears meet in college basketball action from the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya on Wednesday night.
The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders come into this game looking to build on a 60-54 win over Rider last time out. Heading into Tuesday’s game with Rider, efferson leads the Blue Riaders in scoring with 13.8 PPG along with Eli Lawrence who has 11.5 PPG with a team-high 5 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Middle Tennessee so far this season. Camryn Weston also has a team-high 3.2 APG while Deandre Dishman has 8.8 PPG on the year. As a team, Middle Tennessee is averaging 79.8 PPG on 48% shooting from the field, 27.5% from three and 75.8% from the foul line while allowing 65.5 PPG on 46% shooting form the field and 36.8% from three this season.
The Mercer Bears will be out to add to a 78-68 win over Bucknell last time out. Heading into Tuesday’s game against Bucknell, Felipe Haase leads the Bears in scoring with 18 PPG along with 4.8 RPG and 2.3 APG while Neftali Alvarez has 17 PPG with 5 RPG and a team-high 4.5 APG this season. Jalen Johnson’s got 10.5 PPG while James Glisson III leads the Bears in rebounding with 6.7 RPG as well this season. As a team, Mercer is averaging 70.5 PPG on 44.2% shooting from the field, 34.9% from three and 64.1% from the foul line while allowing 71.8 PPG on 45.2% shooting from the field and 36.5% from three this season.
Middle Tennessee is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 Wednesday games and 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games as a favorite while the over is 5-1 in their alt 6 games following a win. Mercer is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games following a win.
This is going to be an interesting matchup between a pair of teams that have been money makers for us as bettors for some time now. With that said, none of Mercer’s losses have been against a slouch by any means, but the Blue Raiders are the only team of the two here consistently winning and the line here is low enough that there’s more emphasis on who wins because if you win you’re likely covering this low number as well. I think that team here is Middle Tennessee, so on a neutral floor, I’ll lay the bucket with the Blue Raiders here.