Eastern Kentucky vs Central Arkansas Prediction College Basketball Picks 1/2/25

The Eastern Kentucky Colonels and the Central Arkansas Bears meet Thursday in college basketball action from the Farris Center. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s an Eastern Kentucky vs. Central Arkansas prediction.

Eastern Kentucky Recap

The Eastern Kentucky Colonels come into this game looking to bounce back from a 78-76 loss to Louisville last time out to fall to 6-7 on the year. After this game, Eastern Kentucky will head on the road to take on North Alabama.

Colonels Lose Back-To-Back Games

Devontae Blanton leads the Colonels across the board with 16.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG and 3.6 APG while George Kimble has 15.8 PPG with 3.3 RPG and 3.6 APG of his own to share the team lead in assists as the only other double-digit scorer for Eastern Kentucky up to this point in the year. Jordan Crawford has 8.3 PPG while Mayar Wol has 7.5 PPG with 5.2 RPG and Montavious Myrick has a team-high 6.1 RPG of his own to share the team lead in rebounding. As a team, Eastern Kentucky is averaging 76.9 PPG on 42.1% shooting from the field, 32.4% from three-point range and 67.1% from the foul line this season.

Why the Eastern Kentucky Colonels will win

• Central Arkansas has lost each of its last seven night games against the ASUN Conference at Farris Center.
• Eastern Kentucky has won each of its last four games against Central Arkansas.

Central Arkansas Recap

The Central Arkansas Bears come into this game looking to build on an 87-69 win over subdivision Southwestern Christian last time out to improve to 4-9 on the year. After this game, Central Arkansas will welcome Bellarmine to town.

Bears Looking To Find Some Consistency Entering Conference Play

Layne Taylor leads the Bears in scoring with 16.8 PPG with 4.2 RPG and 3.5 APG with 2.2 SPG while Elias Cato has 15.4 PPG with a team-high 5.2 RPG to lead Central Arkansas on the glass so far this season. Brayden Fagbemi has 10.6 PPG with 5.1 RPG and a team-high 4.7 APG to lead Central Arkansas in the assist department while rounding out the group of double-digit scorers for Central Arkansas so far this season. Michael Evbagharu also has 6.8 PPG with 4.5 RPG as well on the year. As a team, Central Arkansas is averaging 71.8 PPG on 39.3% shooting from the field, 27.4% from behind the three-point line and 71.7% from the foul line so far this season.

Why the Central Arkansas Bears will win

• Eastern Kentucky has lost six of its last seven away games when playing with a rest advantage.
• Central Arkansas has won four of its last five home games.

Total Points Facts

• Five of Eastern Kentucky’s last six games have produced a total of 152+ points.
• Four of Central Arkansas’ last five night games against Conference opponents at Farris Center have produced a total of 149 or fewer points.

Eastern Kentucky vs. Central Arkansas Prediction

I’m on the over in this game. I was initially going to lock in Eastern Kentucky being favored on the road because I think that’s very telling, but this could be a spot where Central Arkansas’ brutal offense wakes up as they’re 353rd in field goal percentage against Eastern Kentucky’s 310th field goal defense and 271st 3-point defense. On the other side, Central Arkansas is 341st in 3-point defense and I think we see a lot of points here. Give me the over.

Chris Ruffolo's Pick: Over 149.5