Saint Mary's vs Pepperdine Odds & Betting Pick

No. 17 Saint Mary’s can clinch the outright West Coast Conference regular-season title on Thursday night with a win as a double-digit favorite on the NCAAB odds at struggling Pepperdine. The Gaels need to avoid looking ahead to Saturday’s regular-season finale vs. Gonzaga. For this game, before you decide what type bet you will taking, MyBookie experts have a betting preview for this college basketball game.

Saint Mary’s vs. Pepperdine Odds and Betting Analysis | MyBookie College Basketball Betting Preview for this Match

2024 NCAA Division I | 85th annual edition of the tournament

No. 17 Saint Mary’s Gaels vs. Pepperdine Waves
Saint Mary’s -15.5 / Saint Mary’s -2000; Pepperdine +1100 / O/U 138
Thursday, February 29th, 2024 at 11:00 PM ET | CBSSN, Paramount+
Firestone Fieldhouse, Malibu, CA

First Meeting

On Feb. 15, Pepperdine was destroyed 103-59 at Saint Mary’s as the Gael’s Augustus Marciulionis scored a career-high 28 points. Alex Ducas added 18 points and Aidan Mahaney scored 13 for Saint Mary’s. The Gaels made 32 of their last 41 shots from the field. Jevon Porter had 13 points to lead Pepperdine. The Gaels shot poorly early, making just 10 of their first 27 shots from the field. But they pulled away late in the first half by making five straight shots pointers during a 14-2 run that opened a 14-point lead. Ducas made a buzzer-beater to make it 43-27 at the break, and Saint Mary’s was never threatened in the second half.

Why Bet on Saint Mary’s?

Saint Mary’s (23-6, 14-0 WCC) clinched at worst a share of the WCC regular-season title on Saturday with its 15th straight win, 88-62 over San Diego. The Toreros closed the first half with center Steven Jamerson II meeting Saint Mary’s guard Augustas Marciulionis at the rim to reject a dunk, but trailed by a 43-30 margin at the intermission. Deuce Turner gave the Toreros some life at the 12 minute mark by converting an impressive four-point play before Saint Mary’s pulled away late and took its largest lead of the night (31 points) with 1:01 remaining in the game. The Gaels held USD to 36% from the field, and 21% from the three point line.

The Gaels have the longest active winning streak in the nation and wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the WCC tournament in Las Vegas next month. Saint Mary’s can win its first outright regular-season conference title since 2012 with a victory here. Also with a win against the Waves, the Gaels would clinch their first ever perfect road season.

“We’re not celebrating right now,” coach Randy Bennett said after Saturday’s win. “We’ve got another game Thursday in Malibu and we’ll go from there. These guys have been very good at being able to compartmentalize and not getting distracted on anything else.”

Alex Ducas scored 18 points with all 18 coming from beyond the arc on 6-for-7 shooting from deep. Ducas was also the team’s leading rebounder, tying his career-high with 12 boards. Aidan Mahaney put together a stellar all-around line, with 15 points, five rebounds and a career-best seven assists, while Augustas Marciulionis joined Ducas as the second Gael with a double-double, going for 13 points and 10 assists.

Saint Mary’s dished out a season-best 27 assists. The Gaels have reached 20+ assists as a team seven times this season and are 7-0 in those.

SMC has held 13 opponents under 60 points this season, and is 13-0 in those instances. Teams are shooting just 31.2% from three-point range against Saint Mary’s. After starting the season at 3-5, and falling out of the Top 25, the Gaels have rallied back to win 20 of their last 21. The loss was to Missouri State out of conference on Dec. 23.

Why Bet on Pepperdine?

Pepperdine (12-18, 5-10) plays its regular-season finale and had a two-game winning streak snapped on Saturday in a 92-68 loss at a very good San Francisco team. Starting off the night on a hot streak, USF raced out to a 9-1 lead through the first six plus minutes as a Ndewedo Newbury layup at 13:57 got the Dons rolling early.

Locking down on defense in the early minutes, Junjie Wong pushed the USF advantage to fifteen points, 22-7, as the midway mark of the first half crossed on a layup of his own at the 9:25 mark. USF was up 43-29 at the break. The Dons were never threatened in the second half.

San Francisco only narrowly outrebounded the Waves at a count of 32-29, but made more of their boards count at a rate of 15 second-chance points to eight. The Dons shared the ball at a stellar rate, recording 20 total assists on the night. Pepperdine had only eight assists.

Jevon Porter led Pepperdine with 23 points on 7-of-12 field goal shooting while collecting five rebounds and two assists. Houston Mallette added 15 points, three boards and four assists. Michael Ajayi recorded his 15th double-double of the season to move into the lone spot atop the WCC in that category and put him tied for third in the Pepperdine single-season double-double leaderboard alongside Dana Jones (1993-94) and Stacy Davis (2015-16).

Since his return from injury, Porter has averaged 15.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and earned a season-high 26 points against Pacific on Jan. 11 as well as his first double-double of the year against LMU on January 20 with 24 points and 12 boards.

Saint Mary’s Gaels vs. Pepperdine Waves Final Betting Thoughts

Saint Mary’s has basically dominated all season, while Pepperdine has struggled, which is why Saint Mary’s won by 44 points in their previous meeting this season. Saint Mary’s has home field advantage, so that is considered to give them the edge. So, with all that, the question would be, go against the spread or just go straight up, but with steep odds.

On Thursday, Pepperdine will be looking for its first win over an AP Top 25 team since beating No. 20 Wisconsin in November 2004.

No. 17 Saint Mary’s vs. Pepperdine
NCAAB Betting Pick: Saint Mary’s 74, Pepperdine 64 | Odds for College Basketball Games MyBookie Betting Lines for the Game

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