Miami Ohio Redhawks vs. Cincinnati Bearcats December 14 Betting Preview

The Cincinnati Bearcats will host the Miami Redhawks in their second game against Ohio teams in a row. They fell to the Xavier Musketeers on Saturday by a score of 80-77 in a game where they were climbing from behind the entire game.

The Bearcats are a disappointing 6-4, with their one loss at home coming against their biggest rivals, the Musketeers on Saturday. David DeJulius led the team with 22 points. Viktor Lahkin added 16 points and eight rebounds in the loss. 

They were the only two Cincinnati players to score in double figures. The Musketeers had four players to score in double digits.

The Redhawks have struggled even more than the Bearcats, with their record of 4-5. Their four wins have not been super impressive, but one thing they do have on the Bearcats is that they are coming into this game on a one-game winning streak instead of a one-game losing streak. 

They beat Calumet by a score of 85-49. Miami had four players score in double digits in their win.

Let’s take a look at this Wednesday evening matchup between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Miami Ohio Redhawks.

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Odds

I expect the Bearcats to hold a significant lead against the Redhawks in this matchup throughout, as they enter the game as -15.5 point favorites.

Although Cincinnati is having a disappointing season, it is because they are expected to be a tournament team year in and year out. The Redhawks are having even more struggles than the Bearcats and their expectations are lower.

Keys To The Game

If the Bearcats want to pull themselves out of their missed expectations, they will need to defend much better. They rank 208th in points allowed per game which would be unheard of in the Mick Cronin era. Now that Wes Miller has taken over, he is trying to figure out how to best utilize his team to win games.

On the positive side, they are scoring much better than they have in the past, ranking 54th in points per game with 77.1 and 59th in total rebounds per game despite being considered undersized compared to most high-caliber teams in the nation.

Compared to the Bearcats and most of the nation, the Redhawks struggle even more greatly by giving up 81.3 points per game to opponents, which ranks 349th. The Redhawks will need to shoot the ball well from the three-point line if they want to stay in this game and possibly pull off the upset.

Miami Ohio ranks 57th in the nation in three-pointers made per game with 8.7. They also rank 21st in the nation in three-point attempts per game at 27.3. With all of that being said, they still only shoot 32 percent from three, which ranks 236th in the nation. To win this game, they will need to get hot and stay hot from three to keep the pressure on the Bearcats to keep scoring.

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