St. Mary's Gaels vs. Baylor Bears Betting Odds

Opening Line: Baylor -4 / St. Mary's +4 O/U 145

Time: 7:27 PM EST Friday March 26, 2010 on CBS

Tonight in a Sweet 16 game in the South Region the 3rd seed Baylor Bears take on the 10th seed St. Mary's Gaels. Both teams that were seeded 10th or lower in their bracket lost yesterday so can St. Mary's stay the Cinderella team in the Big Dance with a win tonight?

Baylor has a solid and well-balanced team and has not got a lot of press all season, but if they can win this game and advance to the Elite 8 that will all change.

This season St. Mary's is 22-10 ATS and Baylor is 17-10 ATS.

In their 2nd round wins St. Mary's beat Villanova 75-68 and Baylor used a late 8-1 run to beat Old Dominion 76-68.

St. Mary's has a great offense with 2 guards averaging in double figures and C Omar Samhan (21.5 ppg 10.9 rpg). Samhan has played great in the NCAA Tourney, as in the opening win over Richmond he went for 29 points and 12 boards and in the 2nd round win over Villanova he had 32 points and 7 boards.

In their 2nd round upset win over Villanova St. Mary's played great on both ends of the court, as they shot 50% from the field and held Villanova to only 36.2% shooting.

St. Mary's is not a deep team, as in their win over Villanova the reserves only scored a total of 4 points so the starters have to stay out of foul trouble, especially Samhan who was in foul trouble for much of the Gaels' 1st round win over Richmond.

Baylor has a great backcourt with the guard duo of LaceDarius Dunn (19.4 ppg) and Tweety Carter (15.1 ppg). Their frontcourt of F/C Ekpe Udoh (13.9 ppg 9.7 rpg) and 7' C Josh Lomers (6.7 ppg 3.7 rpg) have to give the Bears some interior offense, play well on the boards, and not allow Samhan to have a huge game.

Much like St. Mary's Baylor also shot well in their 2nd round win with a FG% of 51.9% and they hit on 8/20 of their 3-pointers.

The Gaels' guards are solid from downtown and the Bears need to play solid perimeter defense against them and not give them open looks from deep.

Betting Trends

St. Mary's is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog and has an Under record of 9-3 in their last 12 games.

Baylor is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 non-conference games and has an Over record of 5-1 in their last 6 games.

Our Selection : Take St. Mary's +5