Northern Kentucky Norse vs St. Mary's Gaels Prediction, 12/21/2023 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: Northern Kentucky Norse vs St. Mary's Gaels

Date: Thursday, December 21, 2023

Location: University Credit Union Pavilion in Moraga, CA

TV: ESPN+

The St. Mary's Gaels (6-5) are welcoming the Northern Kentucky Norse (7-5) at University Credit Union Pavilion on Thursday.

The Northern Kentucky Norse took the court against Eastern Kentucky and notched a win by a score of 85-75 in their last contest. In the matter of personal fouls, the Norse left the arena with 15 and Eastern Kentucky racked up 22 personal fouls. They also knocked down 6 out of their 24 shots from distance. Eastern Kentucky went 81.3% from the free throw line by converting 13 of their 16 shots. Furthermore, Eastern Kentucky collected 38 boards (16 offensive, 22 defensive), but wrapped up the game with no rejections. Eastern Kentucky dished out 17 assists and had 6 steals for the contest. In terms of defense, Northern Kentucky allowed the other team to go 38.9% from the floor on 28 out of 72 shooting. They also doled out 18 assists in the game while forcing 12 turnovers and getting 9 steals. Concerning rebounding, they earned a total of 29 with 5 of them being of the offensive variety. At the free throw line, the Norse knocked down 17 of their 22 attempts for a percentage of 77.3%. Northern Kentucky finished the game having earned a 51.7% FG percentage (30 of 58) and knocked down 8 out of their 16 three-point shots.

Sam Vinson is someone who was a major contributor for this game. He finished the game at 60.0% from the field and distributed 4 dimes. He was on the court for 37 minutes played and grabbed 7 rebounds. He recorded 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting.

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Northern Kentucky enters this matchup with a win-loss record of 7-5 so far this season. They are averaging 74.8 pts per contest (191st in D-1) while going 47.4% from the field. The Norse are hitting 31.6% on shots from downtown (68 of 215) and 68.0% from the free throw line. As a team, Northern Kentucky is grabbing 33.6 boards per game and has tallied 183 dimes on the campaign, which has them ranked 45th in D-1 in terms of passing the ball. They turn it over 12.3 times per contest and as a team are committing 16.5 fouls on a nightly basis.

Defensively, the Norse have forced 15.9 turnovers every game while drawing 18.2 fouls. They currently rank 325th in college hoops in allowing assists with 173 surrendered so far this year. The Norse are giving up a field goal percentage of 44.3% (309 of 698) and they surrender 34.3 boards per contest as a basketball team. They are surrendering 30.4% on 3-pointers while they are 141st in D-1 in points per game allowed (69.3).

For their last game, the St. Mary's Gaels walked away with a victory by a final of 69-67 when they played UNLV. With respect to how they cleaned up the glass, St. Mary's permitted UNLV to grab 30 overall (3 offensive). They wrapped up this game 21.4% from beyond the perimeter by going 3 of 14 and ended up shooting 28 of 37 from the free throw line (75.7%). The Gaels allowed UNLV to convert 18 out of their 54 attempts from the field which left them with a shooting percentage of 33.3% in this matchup. When this game wrapped up, the Gaels went 25 for 79 from the floor which had them shooting 31.6%. In regard to 3-pointers, St. Mary's made 1 of 19 attempts (5.3%). They were able to bury 18 of the free throw tries for a rate of 58.1%. UNLV had 28 fouls for the contest which took the Gaels to the charity stripe for a total of 31 tries. They also coughed up the ball 14 times, while earning 6 steals in the matchup. The Gaels recorded 33 defensive boards and 28 offensive rebounds for a total of 61 in this matchup.

Mitchell Saxen ended up being important for the Gaels in the matchup. He scored 23 points in his 43 mins of playing time and had 1 assist in this matchup. He buried 8 of 13 in the game for a field goal percentage of 61.5%, and accounted for 16 rebounds.

St. Mary's has a mark of 6-5 on the campaign. The Gaels are committing 18.5 personal fouls every game and they connect on 61.0% from the charity stripe. They are dishing out assists 13.8 times per game (171st in the nation) and they are losing possession via turnover 11.9 times per contest. St. Mary's has tallied 762 points so far this year (69.3 per contest) and they pull in 43.1 boards per game. As an offense, the Gaels are hitting on 42.5% from the floor, which is 279th in the country.

The St. Mary's defense gives up 29.6% on shots from beyond the perimeter (53 of 179) and opponents are knocking down 69.3% of their shots from the free throw line. They have allowed 9.7 dimes and 31.3 boards per game, which is 18th and 39th in the nation. The Gaels on defense are ranked 15th in college basketball in points per game surrendered with 61.2. They are forcing their opponents into 11.4 turnovers per game and allow teams to shoot 38.5% from the floor (26th in the country).

Who will win tonight's NCAA basketball game against the spread?

Tony Sink's Pick: Take Northern Kentucky

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