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East Carolina at Virginia Odds, Expert Pick & TV Info

Written by on December 5, 2016

If you like defensive basketball, then No. 6 Virginia of the ACC should be your favorite team as the Wahoos are easily the best defensive club in all of college basketball. They host East Carolina on Tuesday night in non-conference action and are big favorites on college basketball odds.

East Carolina at Virginia Odds, Expert Pick & TV Info

When: Tuesday, Dec. 6, 7 PM ET Where: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville TV: ACC Extra Stream: WatchESPN Radio: East Carolina / Virginia Opening NCAA Basketball Lines: TBA

Why Bet On East Carolina?

ECU (7-2) enters on a six-game winning streak after taking care of NC Central 69-56 on Saturday. Facing a North Carolina Central team that defeated Missouri and went nose-to- nose with Ohio State earlier this season, the Pirates established a 10-point halftime lead and never looked back. Caleb White scored 20 points. White was 8 of 15 from the floor and made four 3-pointers. He became just the third player in program history to play 3,300 minutes. He needs to average 17 minutes a game over the final 24 contests to become the Pirates' all-time leader in that category. Jeremy Sheppard had 13 points and three 3-pointers. B.J. Tyson chipped in eight points and has 1,007 for his career. Tyson is the 28th player in the program with 1,000 career points. The Pirates had a 10- point lead at halftime. The Eagles cut the deficit to 37-31 early in the second quarter but didn’t get closer. ECU out-rebounded North Carolina Central (5-3) 43-29, grabbing 16 offensive boards. The Pirates also held the Eagles to 39.6 percent shooting from the field. It was ECU’s 18th straight non-conference home win. Suspended the first three games of the season due to a violation of team rules, Sheppard has looked more comfortable with each outing. “The first couple of games were a little shaky and I was still trying to get into it, get into the flow of the fast pace at the next level,” said Sheppard, who played a career-high 28 minutes. “(Missing time) hurt me, so getting back into the flow of a real game has been great for me.”

Why Bet On Virginia?

The Cavs (7-1) lost to a good West Virginia team over the weekend 66-57 to see its 24-game home-court winning streak snapped. Esa Ahmad hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 1:28 remaining and West Virginia scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points to end the nation’s sixth-longest home winning streak. The visitors’ constant defensive pressure was a weapon against which the Cavaliers had no protection. “It’s brutal,” Cavaliers point guard London Perrantes said. “Playing against (WVU’s press) for 40 minutes is tough. They don’t stop. They keep going until the whistle blows. It’s something you just can’t replicate” in practice.” In the second half, Virginia’s signature asset, its defense, was, at best, flimsy. West Virginia shot 57.1 percent after intermission against the nation’s best scoring defense. Perrantes, the heart and soul of Virginia’s team, scored only 6 points on 2-of 10-shooting. Redshirt junior guard Darius Thompson, who began his college career at Tennessee, scored 14 points, his high as a Cavalier. But he was the only UVA player in double figures. WVU’s 24 points in the first half marked its fewest points in any half this season; the Mountaineers’ 66 points was 28 below its season average of 94.7 UVA committed a season-high 14 turnovers. UVA’s high was 11 against UNCG and Grambling State. It still was the fewest turnovers by a WVU opponent this season (Temple, 19). When he met with his players after the game, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett put the loss to WVU in perspective. “I told them, `We’re seeking quality. We’re trying to improve and be the best we can, and this is obviously not the end of the world, not the end of the year. You just learn from this, grow from this,” Bennett said at his postgame press conference.

East Carolina at Virginia Expert Pick: Virginia

Take Virginia to bounce back on NCAA Basketball odds.