ASA Free Play Saturday CBB
(NCAAB) VMI vs. Mercer,
Point Spread: -8.50 | -110.00 Mercer (Home)
Result: Loss
#628 ASA PLAY ON Mercer -8 over VMI, Saturday at 2:00 PM ET



VMI is coming off a huge upset over the top team in the Southern Conference, Furman. It was Furman’s first loss of the conference season and the first win for VMI over the Paladins since the 2014/15 season. It was a dramatic win to say the least with VMI making a FT with 3 seconds remaining in a tie game to win 74-73. Prior to that game they had only 1 win vs a team ranked inside the top 200. On top of that, the game was at home. Now they must go on the road where they’ve been terrible this season. The Keydets are 0-6 on the road this year and 4 of those 6 losses have come by double digits. The average 12 fewer PPG on the road and shoot just 41% which is 6% lower than their season average. Bad spot here for VMI as well not only coming off a huge win as an 11 point underdog, but this will be their 5th game in 11 days and 4th in the last 8 days. Not great for a team with a thin bench (345th in bench minutes) as all 5 of their starters have played at least 30 minutes in each of their previous 4 games. Mercer is off a 20 point road win on Wednesday and they were able to spread out their minutes with 8 players playing at least 11 minutes. They will be the more rested team playing their 3rd game in 8 days here. The Bears are 2-3 in Southern Conference play but undervalued as 2 of their 3 losses went to the wire (lost by 3 @ Furman & by 3 @ Chattanooga) and 2 of their 3 league losses they played with starting guard Alvarez who averages 14 PPG and 5 assists per game. He’s back now and has scored 37 combined points in their last 2 games, both wins. Since joining the SoCon in 2015, Mercer is 6-0 at home vs VMI with their wins coming by an average of 16 PPG. We like Mercer here.