Boston University vs Lafayette Prediction College Basketball Picks 1/2/25

The Boston University Terriers and the Lafayette Leopards meet Thursday in college basketball action from Kirby Sports Center. Here’s a Boston U vs Lafayette prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Boston U vs Lafayette pick. We will examine:

The Boston University Terriers’ recent form and player performance

The Lafayette Leopards’ recent form and player performance

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Boston University Terriers

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Lafayette Leopards

Recent betting trends in games played between Boston U and Lafayette

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Boston U vs Lafayette game

Boston University Terriers Betting Preview

The Terriers’ season didn’t start out too well. Boston U opened on a 1-4 run with a lone win over Dartmouth surrounded by losses to Northeastern, San Diego, UCLA, and Wagner. A mirror-image 4-1 run followed with a loss to Sacred Heart in the middle of wins versus UMBC, Howard, Albany, and Thomas ME. Since then it’s been two losses to Merrimack and UMass Lowell before a win over Maine in the last three games.

Matched up against Maine on Sunday, the Terriers were looking at a 27-19 deficit by the break. Boston U woke up after halftime, however. The second half was a 40-29 Terriers advantage, and they’d go on to win 59-56. Michael McNair led the team with 16 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Kyrone Alexander added 13 points with five rebounds and a pair of assists. The leading scorer off the bench was Ben Palacios with seven points and three boards.

Lafayette Leopards Betting Preview

Over on the Leopards’ side, they started out the season on a pretty rough skid as well. Lafayette lost four of their first five games, taking out only Pennsylvania with losses otherwise to Villanova, La Salle, Cornell, and Rhode Island. Three wins in the next four games (and a loss to Binghamton) over Rosemont, Long Island University, Niagara, and Mercyhurst followed and then came three more consecutive losses versus George Washington, Portland, and Stonehill.

On Sunday in the matchup with Stonehill, the Leopards came out of halftime sporting a close 28-27 deficit. Lafayette was outpaced 42-38 from there and didn’t end up getting any closer in a 70-65 defeat. Caleb Williams was the team’s leading scorer with 15 points and three rebounds. Justin Vander Baan doubled up with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Alex Chaikin finished in double-figures as well with 12 points and two steals alongside two assists.

Why the Lafayette Leopards will win

• Boston University has lost five of its last six night games.
• The home team has won 10 of Lafayette’s last 13 games.

Why the Boston University Terriers will win

• Lafayette has lost each of its last seven home games following a home loss.
• Boston University has won six of its last seven games against the Patriot League.
• Boston University has won the first half in six of its last seven games against Conference opponents.

Boston U vs Lafayette Prediction

I’ll stick with Boston here I suppose, but you could obviously make a case either way. The Terriers had a pretty miserable 19-point first half in their latest game versus Maine and ended up coughing up 14 turnovers along the way. The eight of 20 missed free throws (60 percent) didn’t help, nor did the tepid 41.7 percent shooting. All of that considered, Boston still came through with a nice 40-25 rebounding edge (10-5 offensive) to help steer the comeback win.

The Terriers aren’t scoring too badly overall this year, but they also have a handful of dud performances. Boston U has failed to hit 70 points in seven of their 13 games so far, but they’ve got 69 or more in five of their six wins.

As for Lafayette, they didn’t shoot well versus Stonehill, logging 40.7 percent from the floor and 65.2 percent (15-of-23) from the line. The Leopards were competitive on the boards (34) however, and took decent care of the ball with 10 turnovers.

Lafayette has been mired in a scoring slump of their own over the past three games, posting fewer than 66 points in each. Considering the Leopards have given up 70 or more in five straight as well, Boston should have plenty of room to score here.