Who’s Playing
Hofstra Pride @ Rice Owls
Current Records: Hofstra 4-2, Rice 5-1
How To Watch
What to Know
The Hofstra Pride’s road trip will continue as they head out to face the Rice Owls at 7:00 p.m. ET on Friday at Baha Mar Convention Center. The Pride are expected to win (but not by much) so they better bring their A-game into this one.
The experts figured Hofstra would be stumbling into the contest after a tough loss to Houston, and, well: they nailed that call. Hofstra was dealt a punishing 80-44 loss at the hands of Houston on Friday. The match marked the Pride’s lowest-scoring game so far this season.
Cruz Davis put forth a good effort for the losing side as he posted 18 points. He had some trouble finding his footing against Florida State last Tuesday, so this was a nice turnaround.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Hofstra struggled to work together and finished the game with only seven assists. That’s the fewest assists they’ve posted since the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Rice came tearing into Friday’s matchup with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 13.3 points) and they left with even more momentum. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past the Huskies 61-58. The score was all tied up 29-29 at the break, but the Owls were the better team in the second half.
Trae Broadnax and Denver Anglin were among the main playmakers for Rice as the former went 8 for 14 en route to 19 points plus six rebounds and the latter had 15 points.
Hofstra’s defeat dropped their record down to 4-2. As for Rice, their win bumped their record up to 5-1.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Hofstra has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 36.3 rebounds per game. However, it’s not like Rice struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 42.2. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we’ll see if one team can grab an edge.
Odds
Hofstra is a slight 2.5-point favorite against Rice, according to the latest college basketball odds.
The oddsmakers were right in line with the betting community on this one, as the game opened as a 2.5-point spread, and stayed right there.
The over/under is 131 points.
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