Thursday night college basketball and the St Mary's Gaels will take on the BYU Cougars at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The game has a start time of 9:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN 2. Current Vegas betting odds have BYU listed as 6 point favorites, while the total is set at 148.
Analysis: The St Mary's Galloping Gaels come in having a solid year as they currently stand at 18-5 overall and in second place in the WCC with a 10-2 record. The Gaels took out BYU at home by 5 points and now look to do the same thing on the road where they are 5-2 on the year. The Gaels have gone 10-2 ATS in their last 12 vs. the WCC and 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games following a S.U. win. The Gaels have been a decent offensive team this year, ranking 108th in scoring (70.2 ppg), 49th in shooting (46.6%), 53rd in 3 point shooting (37.6%) and 124th in FT shooting (70.3%). Defensively the Gaels have been solid, as they come in ranked 98th in points allowed (63.1 ppg), 264th in defensive FG% (44.5%) and 125th in 3 point defense (32.8%).
The BYU Cougars have had a nice season as well, but they have been a mediocre 3-3 in their last 6 games. Overall the Cougars are 19-8, which includes a 10-3 mark at home and an 8-5 ark in the WCC, which is good for 3rd place in the conference. The Cougars have gone 21-44-1 ATS in their last 66 games following a ATS win and 3-13 ATS in their last 16 home games. BYU has been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 1st in scoring (84.9 ppg), 45th in shooting (46.7%), 52nd in 3 point shooting (37.7%) and 5th in FT shooting (77.4%). Defensively the Cougars have been very poor, as they come in ranked 325th in points allowed (73.5 ppg), 204th in defensive FG% (43.3%) and 95th in 3 point defense (32.0%).
Pick: Going with the over here. The BYU cougars are al about offense and no defense and that is really true at home where they have averaged 81 ppg and have given up 73.8 pgg. Now I know that St Mary's is not used to high scoring games, but they have the potential to score plenty on this defense as evidenced by the 82 points they scored on them earlier in the year at home. BYU score 77 points in that game and should again flirt with 80 in this one, while St Mary's hits 70+. I see this one being played in the mid-150s.
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