UMBC vs Merrimack 3/16/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Merrimack Warriors and the UMBC Retrievers meet Wednesday in college basketball action from the Basketball Classic at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena. Merrimack is 14-16 on the year so far. The Warriors beat St. Francis BK in their last game. As for UMBC, they’re 18-14 overall and fell to Vermont in their most recent outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Merrimack started out the year at 4-8, then won four straight games before an ugly 1-7 stretch. The Warriors have gone 5-1 since then, with wins over Wagner, Sacred Heart, Fairleigh Dickinson, Sacred Heart again and St. Francis BK. 

Matched up against St. Francis BK on February 26, the Warriors didn’t have much trouble. Merrimack hit a 42-21 run in the second on the way to a 72-52 win. Ziggy Reid and Jordan Minor each scored 27 points with a combined 20 rebounds. 

Over on the UMBC side, their year began at 6-10 overall. The Retrievers have done very well since then outside of a 1-3 run in February. UMBC had five straight wins ahead of their most recent game, a loss to Vermont on March 12. 

Back on Saturday versus the Catamounts, the Retrievers were down 20-37 by halftime. UMBC was outscored 23-45 from there in a rough 82-43 blowout loss. Darnell Rogers was the only double-digit scorer with 10 points in 31 minutes. 

UMBC is 5-0 ATS in their last five at home and 5-1 ATS in their last six overall. The Retrievers are 4-1 ATS in their last five Wednesday games. 

Meanwhile, the Warriors are 4-1 ATS in their last five road games and 3-8-2 ATS in their last 13 after an ATS win. The over is 6-1 in Merrimack’s last seven road games. 

PICK: I’m going to try UMBC here. The Retrievers were destroyed by a very good Vermont team in their last outing, but they’d been doing well prior to that. UMBC had hit 78 or more points in five straight games, and 92 or more points in three of those. In comparable matchups the Retrievers generally do quite well. 

As for Merrimack, they’ve put up some solid points totals themselves lately. This matchup should be a pretty good one, and I like UMBC to eke out a cover in the end.