Score Prediction for BYU Basketball vs Cincinnati in Critical Conference Game

On Saturday night, BYU basketball will host the Cincinnati Bearcats in a critical conference matchup. BYU is 3-4 in conference play and just on the outside of the projected March Madness field. A win over the Bearcats would put BYU at .500 in conference play with a chance to get above .500 on Tuesday against Baylor.

Winning this game is critical for BYU's March Madness hopes. Of the next six games on BYU's schedule, this is the most favorable matchup for BYU according to KenPom.

The matchup to watch in this game will be the BYU offense against the Cincinnati defense. Cincinnati has been one of the best defenses in the country this season. The Bearcats rank ninth in defensive efficiency per KenPom.

When it comes to allowing threes, Cincinnati is one of the stingiest defenses in the nation. The Bearcats allow opponents to shoot 28.0% from three, the fourth lowest in college basketball.

BYU's offense has been one of the better offenses in the country. BYU ranks 31st in offensive efficiency.

For BYU, they will need defense to create some offense in this game. When BYU was getting stops and playing up-tempo against Colorado, the offense started to flow better than it has at any point this season.

BYU's defense has also been much improved over the last few games. The Cougars will need to be stingy on defense to match Cincinnati's elite defense on the other end.

In the end, we think the home-court advantage will be the difference in this game.

BYU 68 | Cincinnati 60