Houston vs Oklahoma State Prediction College Basketball Picks 12/30/24

The Houston Cougars and the Oklahoma State Cowboys meet Monday in college basketball action from the Gallagher-Iba Arena. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a Houston vs. Oklahoma State prediction.

Houston Recap

The Houston Cougars come into this game looking to build on their 87-51 win over New Orleans last time out. After this game, Houston will head home for a game against BYU.

Cougars Win 4th Straight

L.J. Cryer leads the Cougars in scoring with 14.8 PPG while Emanuel Sharp has 14.7 PPG with 3 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Houston up to this point in the year. Terrance Arceneaux has 9.9 PPG with 3.5 RPG and Milos Uzan has added 8.8 PPG with 3.1 RPG and a team-high 5.1 APG to lead Alabama in assists. J’Wan Roberts has 7.7 PPG with a team-high 6.7 RPG to lead the Cougars on the glass up to this point in the year while Joseph Tugler added 6.4 PPG and 6.1 RPG. As a team, Houston’s averaging 78 PPG on 45.6% shooting from the field, 41.5% from three, and 74.9% from the foul line this season.

Why the Houston Cougars will win

• Oklahoma State has lost each of its last 18 night games against AP-ranked opponents.
• Houston has won each of its last 13 night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Oklahoma State Recap

The Oklahoma State Cowboys come into this game looking to build on an 86-74 win over Oral Roberts last time out. After this game, Oklahoma State will take on West Virginia and Kansas State.

Cowboys Win Back-To-Back Games

Marchelus Avery leads the Cowboys in scoring and rebounding with 13 PPG and 5.6 RPG while Abou Ousmane has 12.2 PPG with 5.4 RPG. Bryce Thompson has 10.5 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Oklahoma State up to this point in the year. Arturo Dean also has a team-high 3 APG to lead the Cowboys in the assist department up to this point in the year. As a team, Oklahoma State is averaging 78.9 PPG on 44.4% shooting from the field, 33.8% from three, and 74.4% from the foul line this season.

Why the Oklahoma State Cowboys will win

• Oklahoma State has won each of its last five games at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Houston vs. Oklahoma State Prediction

I’m on the under here. I get why you’d want to look either way here, but I have a hard time trusting any team to break down that vaunted Houston defense, on the other side of the coin, this will be Houston’s first true road game of the season. I just think this is going to end up being a lower-scoring defensive war, so I’ll side with the under in this one.