UC Riverside vs Cal Poly Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 1/16/23

The Cal Poly Mustangs and the UC Riverside Highlanders meet Monday in college basketball action from UC Riverside Student Recreation Center. Cal Poly is 7-10 so far this year. The Mustangs lost to Long Beach State in their last game. As for UC Riverside, they’re 12-6 overall following a win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Cal Poly was 6-6 after 12 games this year with losses to San Francisco, Stanford, Mount St. Mary’s, Washington, Weber State and San Jose State. The Mustangs are 1-4 since then with a lone win over CSU Northridge. 

On Thursday versus Long Beach State, Cal Poly trailed 36-21 by the break. The Mustangs didn’t get any closer on a 41-37 second-half run and lost 77-58. Trevon TJ Taylor posted 13 points with six rebounds in the defeat. 

Over on the UC Riverside side, they started out at 7-5 with losses to Colorado, Creighton, Cal Baptist, Oregon and San Diego. The Highlanders are 5-1 in their last six games with a loss to only CSU Fullerton. 

In Saturday’s matchup versus UCSB, the Highlanders went into the second half with a two-point lead. UC Riverside was outscored 39-38 from there but hung on for the 65-64 win. Kyle Owens doubled up on 19 points with 15 rebounds. 

PICK: I’m going to stick with UC Riverside. The Highlanders are on a nice 6-1 run right now. and they’re scoring well. UC Riverside has hit 68 or more points in five of those seven outings and should be able to put up a pretty decent total here as well. As for Cal Poly, they haven’t cracked 58 points in four straight games and probably won’t be able to keep up if the Highlanders are playing well.