Duke Blue Devils at St. John’s Red Storm, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Sunday, January 30, 2011, 1:00 pm Eastern, TV: CBS
Opening Line: Duke -9
Current Line: Duke -8.5
Opening Total: 143
Current Total: 143
Money Line: Duke -400 / St. John’s +330
The third-ranked Duke Blue Devils (19-1) will try to win their 21st straight game against a non-conference opponent and beat the St. John’s Red Storm (11-8) for the eighth time in a row on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm will also be playing their eighth consecutive game against a Top 25 opponent, with Duke (-8.5) being the highest-ranked team during that stretch.
St. John’s has gone 2-5 straight-up and against the spread so far against Top 25 teams in the Big East, including three straight losses, two of which came on the road. The Red Storm are coming off a 77-52 loss at Georgetown on Wednesday, trailing 40-27 at halftime and never really getting back into the game.
Justin Burrell scored a team-high 12 points while Dwight Hardy was the only other St. John’s player to finish in double figures with 10. Hardy made only 4 of 16 shots from the field – including 2 of 8 from 3-point range – as the team shot a season-low 33.9 percent overall (20 of 59).
Meanwhile, Duke is riding a four-game winning streak since suffering the team’s lone loss of the season on January 12 at Florida State, 66-61. All four of those wins for the Blue Devils have been dominant even though they are just 2-2 against the spread during that stretch. The average margin of victory is 17.5 points during the winning streak with the OVER cashing three times.
Seth Curry scored a season-high 20 points in Duke’s 84-68 win over Boston College on Thursday. Curry had not scored more than eight points in the previous four games with a high of 12 in the last seven. He made 5 of 7 attempts from beyond the arc after missing 15 of his previous 19. Nolan Smith led the way with a game-high 28 points and eight assists, playing 39 minutes or more for the sixth time in eight games.
The Blue Devils have enjoyed plenty of success at the Garden, winning 12 of their last 13 games there. While the Red Storm are 4-1 at MSG this season, they have dropped the last seven games in the series by an average of nearly 13 points. However, St. John’s is 6-2 ATS in the last eight meetings with Duke with the UNDER cashing in eight of the past 10. New head coach Steve Lavin is also 1-3 lifetime against the Blue Devils from his days at UCLA.
If you are betting this college basketball game between Duke & St. John’s, be sure to check out the winning basketball picks packages we offer. You can also get free winners on our free NCAA basketball picks page.
