UC Irvine vs Cal Poly Prediction, Odds & Best Bet for February 20 (Anteaters Display First-Half Dominance)

UC Irvine vs Cal Poly Game Info

• 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Regular Season Game
• UC Irvine (19-8, 12-3 Big West) vs. Cal Poly (7-21, 1-15 Big West)
• Date: Monday, February 20, 2023
• Time: 10:00 PM ET
• Venue: Robert A. Mott Gymnasium -- San Luis Obispo, California
• Coverage: ESPN+

The UC Irvine Anteaters aim to extend their winning streak to five games when they visit the Big West rival Cal Poly Mustangs for some NCAA college basketball action on Monday, Feb. 20.

UC Irvine picked up its fourth straight win with a 78-76 effort over UC Davis on Saturday, highlighted by DJ Davis and Dawson Baker scoring 18 points each. Meanwhile, Cal Poly is coming off an 83-62 blowout loss to Cal State — the Mustangs' 15th consecutive loss.

Can UC Irvine leave Robert A. Mott Gymnasium with its 20th victory of the season? Or will Cal Poly do the unthinkable by putting an end to its lengthy skid?

UC Irvine vs Cal Poly Odds & Spread

• All college basketball betting lines, odds and prop bets are from FanDuel Sportsbook.
• Moneyline: UC IRV: (-650) | CALPLY: (+470)
• Spread: UC IRV: -10.5 (-115) | CALPLY: +10.5 (-105)
• Total: 130.5 -- Over: (-105) | Under: (-115)

UC Irvine enters this contest as the heavy road favorite on the moneyline and spread per FanDuel Sportsbook's odds. This 10 p.m. ET clash also features an over/under of 130.5 points with the under being favored at -115 odds.

UC Irvine vs Cal Poly Betting Trends

• Against the spread, UC Irvine is 14-11-0 this year.
• As a 9.5-point favorite or greater, the Anteaters have two wins ATS (2-3).
• UC Irvine has played 25 games this year, and 16 of them have gone over the total.
• Against the spread, Cal Poly is 13-13-0 this season.
• As 9.5-point underdogs or more, the Mustangs are 6-2 against the spread.
• Out of Cal Poly's 26 games so far this season, nine have hit the over.

UC Irvine Rank	UC Irvine AVG		Cal Poly AVG	Cal Poly Rank
69th	76.3	Points Scored	60.1	360th
88th	66.6	Points Allowed	66.1	73rd
72nd	33.8	Rebounds	28.7	322nd
184th	8.6	Off. Rebounds	6.7	315th
218th	7.1	3pt Made	5.5	337th
53rd	15	Assists	10.1	351st
113th	11.4	Turnovers	13.2	293rd

UC Irvine vs Cal Poly Prediction & Pick

There's no reason to believe that Cal Poly can pull off an upset. While the Mustangs' defense is decent (66.7 PPG, No. 78), their offense is second-worst in the country, averaging just 58.4 PPG. They also only shoot 40.3% from the floor (No. 335) and 29.2% from three-point range (No. 350) while averaging 13.7 turnovers per game (No. 282).

Cal Poly's offense won't see much success against a UC Irvine team that's only allowed an average of 63.3 points over the last four games. I fully expect the Anteaters to take advantage of their opponent's misses as well considering that they average 36.0 rebounds (No. 94) compared to the Mustangs' 31.2 RPG clip (No. 322).

With Cal Poly only being 1-6 against Big West competition at home this season, I'm even more convinced that UC Irvine will emerge the victor.

Final Score Prediction: UC Irvine: 72 | Cal Poly: 63

UC Irvine vs Cal Poly Best Bet

More often than not, Cal Poly finds itself trailing at halftime. The Mustangs own a minus-5.0 first-half scoring margin (T-No. 332) this season, which isn't helped by the fact that they also average the fewest first-half points (26.0) in the nation.

On the other hand, UC Irvine averages a respectable 35.1 points in the first half (No. 98) and has been leading at halftime by an average of 5.7 points over its last three games.

With how awful Cal Poly has been over the last few months, I won't be shocked if UC Irvine is up by a decent chunk after the first frame.

Bet: First-Half Spread — UC Irvine -5.5 (-120)

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.