A Sweet 16 battle features the No. 2 seed Houston Cougars (24-3) playing as 6.5-point favorites against the No. 11 seed Syracuse Orange (16-9) on Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The NCAA Tournament contest tips off at 9:55 PM ET, with the winner moving on to the Midwest Region bracket final.
The Cougars were led by 22 points from Quentin Grimes in a 63-60 win over Rutgers on Sunday. They failed to cover the spread in the contest and the teams combined to go under the 131.5-point over/under.
Buddy Boeheim led the way for the Orange with a team-high 25 points last time out as they picked up a 75-72 win over West Virginia and covered the 4-point spread as underdogs. The teams combined to go under the 148 point total set for the matchup.
Syracuse at Houston: Betting odds, spread and lines
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list.
Lines last updated at 8:30 PM ET on March 27, 2021.
- Money line: Syracuse +220 (bet $100 to win $220) | Houston -275 (bet $275 to win $100)
- Against the spread/ATS: Syracuse +6.5 (-110) | Houston -6.5 (-110)
- Over/Under: 141 (O: -110 | U: -110)
Houston: Three things to know
- The Cougars scoring leader is Grimes, who averages 18.1 points per game. Grimes is the top three-point shooter for the team, connecting on 3.4 per game.
- The Cougars record 77.4 points per game, seven more points than the 70.4 the Orange allow.
- Houston has a 15-0 record against the spread and an 18-1 record overall when putting up more than 70.4 points.
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Syracuse: Three things to know
- The Orange scoring leader is Boeheim, who averages 18.1 points per game. Boeheim is the top three-point shooter for the team, knocking down 3.2 per game.
- The Orange’s 75.9 points per game are 18.0 more points than the 57.9 the Cougars allow to opponents.
- When it scores more than 57.9 points, Syracuse is 13-0 against the spread and 18-9 overall.
Syracuse at Houston: Odds, betting lines, predictions and picks
Prediction
Houston 75, Syracuse 65
Money line
The Houston Cougars are the favorites to win this game by both the model and BetMGM.
Against the spread (ATS)
The Cougars are the bet in this game. They’re favored by 3 more points in the model than MGM (9.5 to 6.5).
Over/Under (O/U)
MGM and the model are extremely close in their point total projections for this contest, within 0.9 points of each other.
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