Appalachian State vs. South Alabama prediction and odds for Sun Belt second round

The Sun Belt tournament kicks off a full slate of college hoops on Thursday with an afternoon tip off.

South Alabama has been the best team in the Sun Belt for the better part of a month and now face Appalachian State on Thursday afternoon in hopes of jump starting a run to the conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Jaguars won the first meeting at home 74-57 back on February 11th, can they take care of business in their second round meeting?

Appalachian State vs. South Alabama odds, spread and total

Appalachian State vs. South Alabama prediction and pick

South Alabama is my favorite bet to come through the Sun Belt Tournament, and it’s starts with a favorable matchup against the Mountaineers.

Spoiler alert, the 22nd best team since the start of February is South Alabama. The team has been incredibly efficient on offense, boasting the second best Sun Belt effective field goal percentage and are top 30 in the country in two-point field goal percentage.

Meanwhile, the team has a stifling perimeter defense that is holding foes to the lowest conference three-point rate and percentage, meaning that they are running teams off the perimeter and into a stout defense that holding foes to 45% shooting on two’s over the last four weeks, good for the 39th best in the country.

Now they face an App. State team they won by double digits at home and is struggling on offense, 261st in effective field goal percentage over the past month. In the only meeting this season, South Alabama pounded the ball inside and had great success, shooting 64% on two-point tries and holding the Mountaineers, who are reliant on their perimeter shooting, to 22% from deep.

The Jaguars are surging, get on board, and take them to cover the spread.

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.