{"id":20636,"date":"2011-12-29T16:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T21:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20636"},"modified":"2011-12-29T11:02:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T16:02:28","slug":"byu-vs-saint-marys-west-coast-conference-college-basketball-opener-inside-mckeon-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/byu-vs-saint-marys-west-coast-conference-college-basketball-opener-inside-mckeon-pavilion-20636\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU vs. Saint Mary’s: West Coast Conference College Basketball Opener inside McKeon Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"

BYU Cougars at Saint Mary\u2019s Gaels
\nThursday, 12\/29\/11, 11:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Saint Mary\u2019s -4
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Saint Mary\u2019s -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 144
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 144.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The BYU Cougars have won three straight games since falling to the Baylor Bears nearly two weeks ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BYU will play its first West Coast Conference game in its history Thursday night after being a member of the Mountain West Conference from 1999 to 2011.\u00a0 The Cougars won six conference titles during that time period and posted a 126-54 mark (.700) against conference foes.\u00a0 Senior forward Noah Hartsock is the team\u2019s most consistent player offensively, averaging 17.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.\u00a0 He has scored in double figures in every game this season.\u00a0 BYU is 3-8 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus seasons, including an 0-2 ATS mark this year.<\/p>\n

The Cougars are definitely balanced when you consider that six players have scored 20-plus points on the roster this year.\u00a0 BYU has won three consecutive games since dropping an 86-83 home decision to the Baylor Bears on Dec. 17.\u00a0 Junior forward Brandon Davies is certainly a player to watch, averaging 11.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.\u00a0 He has tallied two double-doubles this season, with one of them coming against the Bears.<\/p>\n

Saint Mary\u2019s will host the league\u2019s newest member inside McKeon Pavilion and the program is one of eight to win at least 25 games in each of the last four seasons.\u00a0 Ironically enough, the BYU Cougars and Gonzaga Bulldogs fall into that category, giving the WCC three of the eight squads.\u00a0 The Gaels lead the conference in scoring defense, scoring margin, field-goal percentage and scoring margin.\u00a0 Senior forward Rob Jones definitely controls the boards in averaging 10.6 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Saint Mary\u2019s is 14-5 ATS in December the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Gaels enter this contest with an 11-2 overall record and will look to put at least 70 points on the scoreboard, posting a 76-8 mark when doing so the past four seasons.\u00a0 Saint Mary\u2019s completed a recent five-game homestand in eight days by registering a perfect 5-0 record and winning those particular contests by an average of 25.4 points per game.\u00a0 Winning in tonight\u2019s venue is something the program is use to, posting a 68-7 record over the last five seasons, while tallying a 130-46 mark under current head coach Randy Bennett.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Gaels due to their 5-0 ATS mark at home, while the Cougars are 1-4 ATS when playing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BYU Cougars at Saint Mary\u2019s Gaels Thursday, 12\/29\/11, 11:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Saint Mary\u2019s -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Saint Mary\u2019s -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 144 Current Total:\u00a0 144.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker BYU will play its first West Coast Conference game in its history Thursday night after being a member of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[434,5744,6260,5910,5732,1376,3888],"class_list":["post-20636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-byu-cougars","tag-cbb","tag-mckeon-pavilion","tag-noah-hartsock","tag-rob-jones","tag-saint-marys-gaels","tag-west-coast-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20637,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20636\/revisions\/20637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}