Long Beach State vs UC Riverside Prediction 2/20/25 College Basketball Picks

The Long Beach State Beach and the UC Riverside Highlanders meet Thursday in college basketball action from UC Riverside Student Recreation Center. Here’s a Long Beach State vs UC Riverside prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Long Beach State vs UC Riverside pick. We will examine: 

The Long Beach State Beach’ recent form and player performance

The UC Riverside Highlanders’ recent form and player performance 

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Long Beach State Beach

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the UC Riverside Highlanders

Recent betting trends in games played between Long Beach State and UC Riverside

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Long Beach State vs UC Riverside game

Long Beach State Beach Betting Preview

Long Beach State had a good run going in December, but it’s been a struggle otherwise this season. The Beach lost eight of their first nine outings, taking out only La Verne in their opener during that time. A five-game win streak over Cal State Fullerton, Hawaii, San Diego, Pepperdine, and La Sierra ensued afterward. Since then, however, the Beach have won only one game over UC Davis. Otherwise, it’s been losses to UC Riverside, CSU Bakersfield, UC San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, CSU Northridge, Cal Poly, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, CSU Northridge, and Hawaii in that time. That gives the Beach a 7-19 overall run through their first 26 games of the 2024-25 campaign. 

In their latest matchup last Thursday versus Hawaii, the Beach came out of the gate with a 29-24 deficit. Long Beach State got better from there on a 36-33 advantage but still lost 62-60 in the end. TJ Wainwright led the team with 20 points and three rebounds, while Devin Askew added 16 points with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Kam Martin chipped in 11 points with two assists and one steal in 35 minutes as well. 

UC Riverside Highlanders Betting Preview

Over on the UC Riverside side, they’ve got a couple of bad runs in the books but overall they’ve been doing fairly well. The Highlanders opened on a 10-5 stretch over their first 15 games with losses to only Oregon, BYU, Santa Clara, Idaho, and UNLV in that time. UC Riverside would take losses to UC Irvine, Hawaii, and UC Santa Barbara in the next three before dispatching UC San Diego, UC Irvine, CSU Bakersfield, UC Davis, and Cal Poly. It’s been a 2-2 run since then with wins over CSU Bakersfield and UC Santa Barbara amid losses to UC San Diego and UC Davis. That gives the Highlanders a 17-10 record thus far through 27 games. 

Matched up against UC Santa Barbara in their Saturday outing, the Highlanders held a 37-37 tie at the break. UC Riverside hit a 44-32 run the rest of the way though, taking the win 81-69 in the end. Leading the team in scoring was Barrington Hargress with 26 points, four rebounds, and six assists. Nate Pickens added 18 points with five rebounds and one assist, while Isaiah Moses had 15 points and three assists in 22 minutes of work. 

Long Beach State vs UC Riverside Prediction 

I’ll stay with UC Riverside. The Highlanders started a little slowly against a pretty good UCSB team in their last outing but ended up shooting a nice 48.3 percent from the field with a 38-24 rebounding advantage and 16-of-20 (80 percent) from the line. The 11 turnovers were really the only thing to complain about. It was a nice bounce-back effort after a loss to UC Davis, and the Highlanders are now 7-2 in their last nine games. 

Back on January 2 the last time these teams met up, UC Riverside pulled off a road win 76-60. The Highlanders had the advantage in just about every category during that victory, so they should be in line for another nice performance on Thursday in the rematch.