Siena vs Cornell Prediction College Basketball Picks 12/30/24

The Siena Saints and the Cornell Big Red meet Monday in college basketball action from Newman Arena. Here’s a Siena vs Cornell prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Siena vs Cornell pick. We will examine:

The Siena Saints’ recent form and player performance

The Cornell Big Red’s recent form and player performance

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Siena Saints

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Cornell Big Red

Recent betting trends in games played between Siena and Cornell

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Siena vs Cornell game

Siena Saints Betting Preview

The Saints’ season got off to a 3-0 start before losses to Albany, Xavier, Miami-OH, and Jacksonville. It’s been a 2-3 stretch since then with losses to Niagara, St. Bonaventure, and Holy Cross in that time.

In the Holy Cross game back on December 20, the Saints came out of the break with a 27-23 deficit. Siena was outscored 51-47 the rest of the way in a 78-70 result. Both Justice Shoats and Marcus Jackson paced the team with 17 points apiece in the defeat.

Cornell Big Red Betting Preview

Over on the Cornell side, they started things out with a 4-3 run featuring losses to La Salle, Robert Morris, and Syracuse. The Big Red would then beat Colgate, Army, and California before another loss to Illinois State last Sunday.

On December 22 in the Illinois State game, the Big Red were up 45-43 going into the second half. Cornell got outscored 37-32 the rest of the way, however, leading to an 80-77 defeat. Both AK Okereke and Nazir Williams led the way with 19 points each. Cornell will take on Columbia, Penn, Brown, and Princeton after this game.

Why the Cornell Big Red will win

• Cornell has won 11 of its last 12 day games at Newman Arena at Bartels Hall against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Siena has lost nine of its last 10 day games.
• Siena has lost the first half in seven of its last eight day games.

Why the Siena Saints will win

• The road team has won six of Cornell’s last seven games.

Siena vs Cornell Prediction

I’m going to stay with Cornell. The Big Red couldn’t quite keep pace with a solid Illinois State team in their last outing despite shooting 52.8 percent from the field and 88.2 percent (15-of-17) from the line. The Redbirds’ 53.8 percent from 3-point range—compared to Cornell’s 24 percent—didn’t help matters. Still, the Red have scored very well this year with 72 or more points in all 11 games so far.

As for Siena, they shot well (49.1 percent) in the Holy Cross loss but had a similar discrepancy in 3-point shooting: 51.7 percent to their own 26.7 percent. The Saints haven’t quite been able to torch the scoreboard lately; they’ve hit 68 or fewer points in seven of their last nine games. If Cornell shoots well here, they should be able to keep the Saints at bay.