Southern Utah Thunderbirds vs Wake Forest Demon Deacons Prediction, Odds, Best Bets - Week 2

Southern Utah brings a 3-1 start and the loudest early scoring numbers in the country into LJVM Coliseum, where Wake Forest waits as a 19.5-point favorite.

The Matchup

Southern Utah visits Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon at LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem, on ACCNX, with Wake Forest favored by 19.5 points, a total of 155.5, and the Demon Deacons priced at -2,400 on the moneyline against +1,200 for the Thunderbirds. Wake Forest is 2-1. Southern Utah is 3-1, and the road team owns the gaudier early numbers in this game.

Southern Utah has scored 108.3 points a game through four games and allowed 64.8. Anthony Breland leads the Thunderbirds at 14.2 points a game, Rashaad Davis runs the offense at 4.8 assists a game, and Jaiden Feroah leads them at 6.0 rebounds a game. It is a balanced group rather than a one-man show, and that balance is part of why the scoring has come so easily so far. Southern Utah carries no injury designations into the trip.

Wake Forest has been quieter and steadier. The Demon Deacons score 72.0 points a game and allow 66.7, with Kevair Kennedy leading them at 16.3 points and 3.3 assists a game and Gavin Placide pulling down 7.7 rebounds a game, and Wake Forest carries no injury designations either.

The honest read on both teams still runs through last season, because four games and three games are thin evidence. Southern Utah scored 76.3 points a game last season and allowed 79.5, while Wake Forest scored 78.8 and allowed 76.9. A Thunderbirds team that leaked points all of last season now allowing 64.8 a game is the hardest number in this matchup to take at face value, and Wake Forest's own defensive improvement, from 76.9 allowed to 66.7, comes with the same small-sample warning.

Key Factors

The first factor is the size of the leap the spread asks Wake Forest to prove. A 19.5-point line prices the Demon Deacons as if Southern Utah's early form is mostly fiction, and some of it surely is. But a team does not reach 3-1 by accident alone, and Breland, Davis and Feroah give the Thunderbirds three different ways to keep possessions alive against a favorite that would rather slow this game down.

The glass and the pace point the same way. Placide at 7.7 rebounds a game is the best rebounder in this matchup, and Wake Forest's clearest path to a runaway is second chances plus a half-court squeeze. Southern Utah's counter is the total itself. At 155.5, this game is priced for points, and an open game with possessions to spare is exactly the setting where a big underdog keeps answering often enough to stay inside a large number.

The honest counterpoint is that Wake Forest's class edge is real. The Demon Deacons play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southern Utah plays in the Big Sky, and if Kennedy controls the tempo early and Wake Forest defends the way it has through three games, the favorite can pull away late. Southern Utah has to score to cash this ticket. If the shots stop falling against a longer, deeper home team, 19.5 disappears fast.

Every pick is published with its line before the game. Odds via consensus sportsbooks at time of writing and move constantly. Must be 21+. If gambling is a problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.