Cornell Big Red vs. Temple Owls Betting Odds

Opening Line: Temple -3.5 / Cornell +3.5 O/U 119

Time: 12:30 PM EST, March 19, 2010 on CBS

On Friday afternoon in the 1st round game in the East region for both teams the 5th seeded Temple Owls take on the 12th seeded Cornell Big Red. Both teams won their respective conferences this season, as Temple won the Atlantic 10 and Cornell won the Ivy League. Both teams ended the season on fire with Temple winning their last 10 games including winning the Atlantic 10 conference tournament and Cornell won their last 7 games.

This season Cornell is 16-10 ATS and Temple is 21-11-2 ATS.

In their last games Temple beat Richmond 56-52 in the Atlantic 10 championship game on Sunday and Cornell beat Yale 79-59 on March 6th.

Cornell has to worry about coming pout a little bit rusty in this game, as they will not have played in almost 2 weeks.

Both teams are solid on defense, but Temple is one of the best defensive teams in the nation only allowing an average of 56.1 ppg.

Cornell has a decent offense averaging 75.3 ppg and they are very well balanced with leading scorer F Ryan Wittman (17.5 ppg), C Jeff Foote (12.3 ppg), and G Louis Dale (11.9 ppg). Foote is a solid 7-footer and Temple may have trouble against him, as the Owls do not have a lot of height.

Temple is led by their backcourt duo of guards Ryan Brooks (14.3 ppg) and Juan Fernandez (12.6 ppg). These 2 will have to shoot the rock well from outside in order to be successful in this game.

Temple's main guy in the paint is F Lavoy Allen (11.5 ppg 10.9 rpg) and while he is a great rebounder he may need help keeping Foote off the boards, as he gives up 3 inches to the Cornell center.

Cornell will have to have good ball movement in this game and hit their open shots, as Temple and their great D will not give them many easy buckets.

Temple plays in a much tougher conference and that may be a big factor in this game.

Betting Trends

Cornell is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 non-conference games, 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall, 5-2 ATS in their last 7 neutral site games, and has an Under record of 18-8 in their last 26 games.

Temple is 6-0-1 ATS in their last 7 games following a win, 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 games against teams with a winning percentage above 60%, 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games, and has an Under record of 6-1 in their last 7 games as a favorite.

Our Selection : Take Temple -3.5