Mt. St. Mary’s vs Duke Prediction 3/21/25 College Basketball Picks

The Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers and the Duke Blue Devils meet Friday in NCAA Tournament First Round college basketball action from PNC Arena. Here’s a Mount St. Mary’s vs Duke prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Mount St. Mary’s vs Duke pick. We will examine: 

The Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers recent form and player performance

The Duke Blue Devils recent form and player performance 

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Duke Blue Devils

Recent betting trends in games played between Mount St. Mary’s and Duke

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Mount St. Mary’s vs Duke game

Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers Betting Preview

The Mountaineers had some choppy runs this season but they’ve really come alive lately through their MAAC Tournament championship run. Mount St. Mary’s went 11-5 over their first 16 outings, then took losses to Rider, Quinnipiac, Siena and Manhattan in January. The regular season finished on an 8-3 run with losses to only Iona, Fairfield and Quinnipiac, then the Mountaineers took out Marist, Merrimack and Iona on the way to their conference tournament championship. After a First Four win over American on Wednesday, Mount St. Mary’s now has a 23-12 overall record this year so far. 

In their NCAA Tournament matchup Wednesday versus American, the Mountaineers jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead. Mount St. Mary’s posted a 35-34 advantage the rest of the way during an 83-72 win. Both Jedy Cordilia (seven rebounds) and Dola Adebayo (four rebounds) led the team on 22 points apiece during the victory. 

Duke Blue Devils Betting Preview

Over on the Duke side, they’ve had quite the stellar year so far, with only three scattered losses throughout the year. two of those defeats came in the first six games, courtesy of Kentucky and Kansas—each decided by five points or fewer. Duke would then hit a nice win streak from November 29 versus Seattle to February 5 against Syracuse. After a loss to Clemson, Duke took out Cal, Stanford, Virginia, Illinois, Miami, Florida State, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Louisville on the way to an ACC Tournament championship and a great 31-3 overall record this year so far. 

Back on Saturday in the conference tournament championship game versus Louisville, Duke had a 38-33 deficit heading into the second half. The Blue Devils surged in the second half on a 40-24 run however, taking the comeback win 73-62 in the end. Tyrese Proctor led the tam with 19 points and two assists, while Kon Knueppel had 18 points with eight rebounds. Sion James chipped in 15 points with six boards as well. 

Mount St. Mary’s vs Duke Prediction 

I was going to stay with Duke here, but with the crazy thick line I’ve got to take the Mountaineers on principle. The Blue Devils got off to a bit of a slow start versus Louisville, but everything ended well in the final round of the ACC Tournament. Duke wound up posting 44 percent from the field with a nice 10-of-27 (37 percent) from 3-point range. The 10 turnovers for 10 Louisville points were just about the only minor blemish. During this current 11-game win streak, Duke has hit 73 or more points in every outing and 78 or more in nine of them. 

As for Mount St. Mary’s, they played a nice all-around game versus American this week, notching 57.7 percent from the field with a 31-26 rebounding edge and 14-of-17 (82.4 percent) from the line. The lone blemish was the 12 turnovers for 13 Eagles points—not to mention the 47.4 percent shooting allowed. This will be a significant uptick in difficulty and the Mountaineers’ toughest challenge of the season so far. I’m not so sure they’ll keep much of a pace for long, but the line seems generous enough for them to potentially get in there. 

Andrew Jett's Pick: Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers +32.5