Our next college basketball betting analysis and prediction preview takes us to Oklahoma for a mid-major showdown between the Missouri State Bears (4-6, 1-2 Away) and Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (8-3, 6-0 Home) on Friday night. Tip-off from Mabee Center in Tulsa is scheduled for 8:00 pm EST.
This will mark the 20th all-time meeting between Oral Roberts and Missouri State. The Bears lead by the slimmest of margins, 10-9, after a nine-point victory a year ago in Springfield.
Let’s take a look at college basketball standings as Missouri State hails from the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), where they sit tied for fourth with a 1-1 conference record, and Oral Roberts is representing the Summit League, where no one has played a conference game as of yet.
Continue reading for our Missouri State vs Oral Roberts prediction.
Last Game Records
Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts is in the midst of a five-game homestand, and it’s gotten off to a nice start. They’ve won the first two in relatively easy fashion, including Monday’s 14-point win over Liberty.
The Golden Eagles were 3-point favorites, out-scoring the Flames by 18 in the second half to overcome a four-point deficit at the break.
Missouri State
Missouri State, on the other hand, is looking to snap a three-game losing streak on which they’ve had a chance to stew for six days.
Their most recent defeat came last Saturday at home to Purdue Fort Wayne, despite closing as 5.5-point chalk.
There is a full card Friday, but this one could be one of the more interesting to follow among the NCAA basketball games today.
Missouri State vs. Oral Roberts Betting Analysis
Taking a look at the NCAAB odds for this game, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles basketball is favored by 7.5 points with an over/under of 144.5. Missouri State is 4-5 ATS this season and 1-2 ATS on the road.
Oral Roberts is 2-0 ATS inside Mabee Center and 5-2 ATS overall (both teams faced opponents lower than the D-1 level, which does not include spreads).
It’s also worth noting that while Oral Roberts is 4-3 to the over this season, Missouri State is just 1-8.
Under bettors on Bears’ games, this season have been rewarded. Nothing major to report on the college basketball injury report for this one, a great thing for people making a Missouri State vs Oral Roberts prediction.
Missouri State Preview
This will be the Bears’ final non-conference game of the year away from home as they look to make it five of the last seven against Oral Roberts. If they win on Friday night, it would be their first at the Mabee Center since 2013.
Missouri State has been well-traveled this year already as they’re one of only 12 Division I NCAA basketball teams to have played in four different time zones already, covering nearly 12,000 travel miles. But remember that they haven’t played since last Saturday, so that could be nullified.
Bears’ Defense
The Bears’ defense has been their calling card early on, as they’ve yet to allow an opponent to score 70 points.
If they’re able to hold ORU under that number, it will mark the first time in 36 years that a Missouri State team has held each of their first ten opponents under 70.
Oral Roberts Preview
That could prove to be difficult against this Oral Roberts team. The Golden Eagles enter this matchup as the eighth-highest scoring team in the entire country, tallying 85.8 points per game through their first 11 contests.
Their non-conference slate has included matchups against St. Mary’s and Houston, the Cougars, of course, reaching No. 1 status last week before falling to Alabama.
ORU lost both of those meetings and also fell to Utah State, but they have brought the offensive fireworks every other time out.
Missouri State vs. Oral Roberts Betting Prediction
This Bears defense is not quite on the level of the 1985 Chicago Bears, but that’s the year this Missouri State team is trying to eclipse in terms of that end of the floor.
It took until the 23rd game of that season for MSU to give up 70 points, which is remarkable.
Nine is impressive in its own right, and the thing that stands out the most when examining the Missouri State Bears team stats, but it won’t reach ten on Friday.
Oral Roberts is too good with the ball and will eventually wear down Missouri State.
Max Abmas is one of the best scorers and offensive college basketball players in the country, and he will get his as the Golden Eagles will extend their winning streak to six.
That is our Missouri State vs Oral Roberts prediction.
NCAAB Pick: Oral Roberts -8 (-110)
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