St. Louis vs Richmond Prediction 1/18/25 College Basketball Picks

The Saint Louis Billikens and the Richmond Spiders meet Saturday in college basketball action from Robins Center. Here’s a Saint Louis vs Richmond prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Saint Louis vs Richmond pick. We will examine:

The Saint Louis Billikens’ recent form and player performance

The Richmond Spiders’ recent form and player performance

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Saint Louis Billikens

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Richmond Spiders

Recent betting trends in games played between Saint Louis and Richmond

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Saint Louis vs Richmond game

Saint Louis Billikens Betting Preview

The Billikens have been a pretty reliable team for most of the season, but they did have a pretty rough stretch back in December. St. Louis opened the year with a 5-2 run featuring losses to Santa Clara and Wichita State among wins versus Avila, Loyola Marymount, Quinnipiac, UMass Lowell, and Jackson State. A 1-4 run came next with a lone win over Chicago State. The losses otherwise were versus San Francisco, Illinois State, Wofford, and Grand Canyon. Following a four-game win streak over William Woods, Fordham, Saint Joseph’s, and St. Bonaventure, the Billikens took a loss to VCU in their last outing, leaving them with a 10-7 overall record through the first 17 games of the season.

In the VCU matchup on Tuesday, the Billikens entered the second half with a 47-42 deficit. St. Louis was outscored 31-20 the rest of the way and limped to a 78-62 loss in the end. Both Robbie Avila (eight rebounds; three steals) and Isaiah Swope (three rebounds; three assists; three steals) scored a team-high 18 points apiece. Gibson Jimerson was also in double-figures with his 11 points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal in 40 minutes of work on the floor.

Richmond Spiders Betting Preview

Over on the Richmond side, they’ve struggled pretty significantly so far this year. The Spiders have only two instances of consecutive wins on the season. Richmond hit a 4-4 record out of the gate, losing to Marist, Charlotte, Bucknell, and Louisiana Tech among wins over Mount Olive, Maine, Florida Tech, and Ball State. A 1-4 stretch came next with a win over VMI among losses to Auburn, Belmont, William & Mary, and Florida Gulf Coast. Since then it’s been wins over George Washington and UMass followed by losses to George Mason, Rhode Island, and St. Bonaventure for a 7-11 record through the first 17 outings of the 2024-25 season.

Matched up against St. Bonaventure in their Wednesday outing, the Spiders were in trouble by halftime with a 37-25 deficit. Richmond got slightly better from there with a 26-24 run but still lost pretty handily 63-49. The only player on the team to finish in double-digits was Jason Roche with 12 points and one rebound in 24 minutes of action. Both Jonathan Beagle (two rebounds) and George Washington (nine minutes) added eight points apiece as the leading bench scorers.

Why the Richmond Spiders will win

• Richmond has won seven of its last eight day games at Robins Center against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Why the Saint Louis Billikens will win

• Saint Louis has won each of its last five day games against Conference opponents.
• Richmond has lost each of its last three games against the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Saint Louis vs Richmond Prediction

I’m staying with St. Louis here. The Billikens need a good bounce-back effort after a bad loss to a solid VCU team, and this is a promising place to get it. Saint Louis shot well in that one (45.9 percent) but had a 38-26 rebounding deficit (22-4 offensive) and coughed up 19 turnovers for a whopping 27 Rams points in the loss. The Billikens had scored 71 or more points in eight straight games prior to that, however, and I like them to hit that threshold here as well.

As for Richmond, they’ve been in the dumps scoring-wise lately with fewer than 65 points in three straight and fewer than 67 in five of their last six. Saint Louis shouldn’t have a ton of issues controlling this matchup—so long as the Billikens can get better on the boards and clean up the ball-handling mistakes, that is.