Xavier vs St. John's (NY) Prediction, Odds & Best Bet for December 28 (Musketeers Thrive at Caresecca Arena)

Xavier vs St. John's (NY) Game Info

• 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Regular Season Game
• No. 22 Xavier (10-3, 2-0 Big East) vs. St. John's (NY) (11-2, 1-1 Big East)
• Date: Wednesday, December 28, 2022
• Time: 9:00 PM ET
• Venue: Caresecca Arena -- Queens, New York

Wednesday, Dec. 28's NCAA college basketball slate includes a Big East showdown between the No. 22 Xavier Musketeers and the St. John's Red Storm.

Xavier has been running through the competition lately, defeating Seton Hall, 73-70, on Dec. 20 to win its sixth straight game. Meanwhile, St. John's enters tonight's game following an unfortunate 78-63 loss to Villanova exactly one week ago, leaving the Red Storm hungry for a bounce-back performance.

Can Xavier continue its perfect run against the Big East? Or will St. John's prove to be too tough to defeat at Carnesecca Arena?

Xavier vs St. John's (NY) Odds & Spread

• All college basketball betting lines, odds and prop bets are from FanDuel Sportsbook.
• Moneyline: XAVIER: (-140) | STJOHN: (+115)
• Spread: XAVIER: -2.5 (-105) | STJOHN: +2.5 (-115)
• Total: 163.5 -- Over: (-105) | Under: (-115)

Xavier enters this contest as the slim favorite on the moneyline and spread per FanDuel Sportsbook's odds. This 9 p.m. ET clash also features an over/under of 163.5 points with the under being favored at -115 odds.

Xavier vs St. John's (NY) Betting Trends

• Xavier has covered the spread six times in 13 games.
• The Musketeers' ATS record as 2.5-point favorites or more is 4-5.
• Xavier has seen 10 of its 13 games hit the over.
• Against the spread, St. John's (NY) is 6-6-0 this season.
• The Red Storm have no wins ATS (0-2) as a 2.5-point underdog or greater this season.
• St. John's (NY) has played 12 games this year, and five of them have hit the over.

Xavier Rank	Xavier AVG		St. John's (NY) AVG	St. John's (NY) Rank
14th	83.8	Points Scored	79.5	50th
295th	73.6	Points Allowed	68.4	173rd
96th	34.6	Rebounds	39.2	4th
216th	8.5	Off. Rebounds	12.1	15th
158th	7.8	3pt Made	6.1	301st
1st	21.2	Assists	16.5	31st
295th	13.8	Turnovers	13.5	271st

Xavier vs St. John's (NY) Prediction & Pick

After winning 14 of the first 17 matchups in this rivalry, Xavier has now lost three straight games to St. John's. Keeping that in mind, I see the Musketeers reversing their fortunes against their Big East rivals tonight.

For starters, Xavier's defense has been tremendous lately, holding opponents to 70 or fewer points in three of the last six games. Opponents are also only averaging 6.0 three-pointers on 30.0% shooting against the Musketeers in their last three games, which spells trouble for a St. John's squad that only shot 6-of-25 (24.0%) from beyond the arc against Villanova.

With the Musketeers also winning six of their last eight road games against the Red Storm, I'm confident that Xavier can win, once again, at Carnesecca Arena.

Final Score Prediction: Xavier: 79 | St. John's: 75

Xavier vs St. John's (NY) Best Bet

Neither team has been reliable against the spread lately, so I'm turning my attention to the total for the best bet. A 163.5-point total is too much for my liking, so I recommend backing the under. After all, nine of the last 10 Xavier-St. John's meetings have finished with fewer than 163.5 points. On top of that, the total has gone under in five of the Red Storm's last six Big East tilts.

Going with the safer option here, taking the under at -115 odds is the way to go.

Bet: Under 163.5 Points (-115)

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.