The Syracuse Orange are on the fringes of the NCAA top-25 rankings as they look to solidify their position amongst the college basketball elite in what is their final contest before conference play, hosting the Buffalo Bulls in the Carrier Dome.
While Syracuse comes from the bigger conference, the Bulls are higher ranked team coming into competition. Undefeated through their first ten contests, Buffalo gets their biggest test to date when they hit the road to take on the Orange. Though this is still the same team that upset Arizona in the NCAA Tournament last year. They shouldn’t be overlooked just because of their conference.
Can Buffalo capture a key road win against Syracuse to help elevate their standing prior to being relegated to MAC contests? Or will Syracuse show that they’re in a class above any competition the Bulls have faced to date and get the win at home?
NCAA Basketball Betting at Bookmaker.eu
Buffalo Bulls vs. Syracuse Orange
Date and Time: Tuesday, December 18, 2018, 8 p.m. ET
Location: Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York
College Basketball Odds: Check Back Later
Bulls vs. Orange TV Coverage: ESPN2
It’s easy to overlook a MAC team given the weaker schedule. While the team is 10-0, that involved wins over West Virginia, Dartmouth, Marist, San Francisco and Le Moyne rather than Ohio State or Georgetown like the Orange.
Still, this is a strong Bulls team and one that experienced some national success last year and are looking to build off that.
Buffalo is a strong offensive team. They’ve found a way to put points on the board consistently. They lean heavily on the backcourt with CJ Massinburg leading the way. The senior guard missed a game earlier this year but is otherwise averaging 32.2 minutes on the court.
In that time, Massinburg has 17.1 PPG and 7.1 RPG. He’s also proven a strong shooter from the perimeter with a 42.9-percent mark beyond the arc.
Fellow senior guards Jeremy Harris and Dontay Caruthers provide reliable production while Jayvon Graves and Davonta Jordan are in their second and third year with Buffalo, respectively. This is a veteran backcourt.
While the Bulls don’t have as much depth inside the paint, they still have plenty of experience with Nick Perkins. Perkins is second to Massinburg in scoring with 13.8 PPG whiel he also adds 8.2 RPG.
This Bulls team has been surprisingly strong on the boards in the early going despite being an athletic, fast-paced, guard-heavy roster.
As they remain undefeated, Buffalos is obviously coming off a win, but against Southern Illinois, the Bulls showed they can win the lower scoring games, too, scoring just 73, but coming away with an eight-point win nonetheless.
On the other side of the floor in Tuesday night’s showdown, Syracuse will come into action looking to rebound off a disappointing loss to Old Dominion.
Syracuse hosted that game, too, and lost 68-62 with the Monarchs to just 33-percent shooting from the floor. Tyus Battle scored 24 points in the loss, but he was just 5-for-14 from the floor and got nearly half of his points off free throws. Elijah Howard was the only other player to reach double-digits scoring with 14 points. He was a bit more accurate, but it still wasn’t enough.
The Orange don’t have an impressive shooting percentage inside the paint or on the perimeter this season. That’s certainly a challenge they’ll have to overcome. They have a good defense to help with that, of course.
Battle leading the charge for the Orange in the last game isn’t a surprise. The guard is the team leader in scoring and gets a ton of chances. He, however, is usually a bit better at converting them into points.
Battle is averaging 46.1-percent from the floor, well above the .414 field goal percentage mark for the team. He’s also putting up 18.5 PPG. He’s the team’s primary scoring threat outside, too, as the team is shooting below 30-percent outside.
Inside, the Orange have a seeming edge over the Bulls with Oshae Brissett and Elijah Hughes as a pair of solid forwards. Brissett is the team’s leading rebounder while they’re both putting up a bit over 14 PPG.
Live Betting
Syracuse is coming off a loss where they only scored 62 points. The Orange has been held to 72 or fewer now in five straight games and the team has only scored more than 77 points once all year. Syracuse has 71 PPG.
While the Orange haven’t scored more than 86 all year, the Bulls are averaging right around there with 85 PPG. They’re coming off a win where they only scored 73, but that was the team’s second lowest point total of the year. They’ve scored at least 80 in five of their last seven, including a 110-point performances against Dartmouth.
These are two fundamentally different teams. One is more defensively oriented with a slower, more deliberate pace of play while the other is a high-energy team with a face pace and strong shooting percentage.
With such differences, this game will provide some interesting totals, prop bets and live betting opportunities for this game at BookMaker.eu.
Key Player
The Bulls have won each of their first 10 games with Massingburg being rather consistent, but Perkins has been a bit more up-and-down. Against a team like Syracuse, the Bulls cannot afford for Perkins to not be on his A-game.
The senior forward has scored at least 20-points in three of the team’s last five games and has at least 18 points in four of them. The one exception, however, was a three-point outing. He still had seven rebounds in that game to help contribute to the win, but it was his third sindle-digit scoring performance of the season and against Syracuse, Buffalo will need the senior forward to lead the way inside.
Being a smaller conference team, the Bulls are a guard-heavy program that typically sends out a four-guard mix. Perkins is the only forward with more than seven PPG and is also averaging the most minutes at 24.5. Montell McRae is next at 14.7 MPG.
cRae has more size than Perkins, but if the Bulls are going to win this one, they need production inside and that needs to come from Perkins. He’s the most prolific player Buffalo has in the frontcourt.
Bulls vs. Orange Live Betting
Count on a tightly fought battle in this one between two of the nation’s better teams. The home court should make Syracuse the favorites, but Buffalo shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, look for the Bulls to get the upset.
Syracuse will do their best to defend the superior shooting team in Buffalo but look for big games from Massinburg outside and Perkins inside the paint. Both showed they weren’t afraid of the big stage in the team’s momentous NCAA tournament win last year. Perkins will do enough on offense and defense both to allow the backcourt to do their thing for the win.
Buffalo should outshoot the Orange while competing against the boards and on defense.
Be sure to check out all the live betting at BookMaker.eu for this weekend’s college basketball action.
NCAA Basketball Score Prediction: Buffalo 78, Syracuse 75
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