The UC-Riverside Highlanders and the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos meet in college basketball action from the Thunderdome last time out.
The UC-Riverside Highlanders will look to build on a 74-68 win over UC-San Diego last time out. Zyon Pullin leads the Highlanders in scoring with 19.6 PPG along with 4.5 RPG and 4.1 APG to also lead UC-Riverside in assists while Flynn Cameron has 10.5 PPG with 5.5 RPG and Lachlan Olbrich has 10.1 PPG with a team-high 5.9 RPG to lead the Highlanders in rebounding and to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for UC-Riverside up to this point in the season. As a team, UC-Riverside is averaging 72.4 PPG on 44.3% shooting from the field, 34.6% from three and 70.4% from the foul line this season.
The UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos will look to build on their current nine-game win streak after a 60-48 win over Cal State-Bakersfield last time out. Ajay Mitchell leads the Gauchos in scoring and assists with 15.9 PPG and 4.5 APG while Miles Norris has 14 PPG with 6.3 RPG and Josh Pierre-Louis has 10.3 PPG with 3.8 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for UCSB so far this season. Andre Kelly also has 9.7 PPG with a team-high 6.5 RPG to lead the Gauchos in rebounding up to this point in the season. As a team, UC-Santa Barbara is averaging 71 PPG on 48.6% shooting from the field, 34.8% from three and 70.7% from the foul line this season.
UC-Riverside is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a win while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games following an ATS win. UC-Santa Barbara is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games following a win while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 home games.
I get the case to be made for either side in this game, but I’m backing UCSB here. The Gauchos just have a history of beating up on UC-Riverside and the Highlanders, while playing well on the road, are just running into a UCSB team that’s playing lights out right now. Not a game I’m rushing to bet, but I’d side with UCSB laying the points here.