Georgia vs Seton Hall Semifinals NIT Betting Lines

The second game of the NIT semifinals from Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University on Tuesday night features Georgia of the SEC facing Seton Hall of the Big East with the Pirates favored on the college basketball odds.

MyBookie Line NCAAB Expert Analysis Georgia vs Seton Hall | Semifinals National Invitation Tournament Basketball Odds

Why Bet on Georgia Bulldogs?

Georgia (20-16) has played three close games in the NIT and advanced with a pretty sizable 79-77 upset at Ohio State last Tuesday. Jamison Battle’s three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left was right on-line but ended up on the front rim for OSU.

Trailing by three with 19 seconds to play, Bruce Thornton split a pair at the line, but the Buckeyes were able to corral the loose ball rebound.

Blue Cain earned 17 points and a personal best eight rebounds, while Frank Anselem-Ibe recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Georgia won the battle of the glass over the Buckeyes by a 38-37 margin, outrebounding its opponent for the 13th time this season.

“Unique team to say the least,” UGA coach Mike White said of his guys. “Resilient team. We’ve said it all year. Consistent team. We’re really proud of these guys – I mean really proud of these guys. Really tough environment the other day, and an even tougher environment tonight. We’ve been on the road for a while. It feels like a month because we flew here straight from Winston-Salem. Credit their crowd, the environment was rocking. It was really loud, comparable to the top few SEC road environments that we competed in this year, and it was a factor. I thought it affected us offensively, especially in the second half. But our resiliency, our toughness, our willingness to want to continue to compete and keeping fighting to win another was on full display. I’m just really proud of this group. NIT Semifinals, to get to Indianapolis and be a part of this thing, I’m really proud of our guys.”

Thomasson is the Bulldogs’ leading scorer at 13.1 ppg and also paces Georgia with 26 double-digit and five 20-point performances. The only player to start all 36 games, Thomasson enters the Seton Hall game two points shy of 1,500 for his collegiate career.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim is scoring at a double-figure pace for the Bulldogs as well at 12.2 ppg, largely due to sporting team-high shooting percentages of .356 from 3-point range and .887 at the free throw line. However, Abdur-Rahim has missed the last seven games with an injury, the first DNPs of his career at Georgia. Prior to that, Abdur-Rahim had played in 93 straight contests.

White is now 16-8 (.667) in the postseason, 6-4 in NCAAs and 10-4 in NITs. He is 7-4 in NIT road games including wins at Ohio State (twice), Florida State, Texas A&M, Wake Forest and now Georgia.

With its NIT wins over Xavier and Ohio State both being decided at the final horn, Georgia upped its records to 10-8 in games that were one-possession contests in the final 5:00 and 8-5 in matchups that were separated by three points or less in the final 30 seconds of regulation.

Georgia is 1-1 all-time vs. Seton Hall. They last played in December 2015. April 2 matches the latest the Bulldogs have ever played and is the 41-year anniversary of Georgia’s loss to N.C. State in the 1983 Final Four.

Bet Georgia to Win
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Why Bet on Seton Hall Pirates?

“Our guys kept fighting and trying to claw back. There was a lot of positivity in the huddles and a belief that we could make a quick run. We had good offensive possessions, but we couldn’t quite do it on the other end where we could get a string of stops together. But it wasn’t for a lack of care or anything like that, we just dug ourselves too big of a hole at the beginning of each half which proved to be the difference.”

The Pirates, who led wire-to-wire in the victory, were led by 21 points from Al-Amir Dawes. They are 19-6 this season when Dawes scores in double-figures and 9-3 when he’s the team’s leading scorer. A total of 10 of Dawes’ 18 career 20-point performances have come this season.

“It feels great to be a part of something, and not sitting around at home playing (video) games,” Dawes said. “From the beginning we all came together collectively and said we wanted to play (in the NIT) and we’re going to finish it off strong. So we’re here, three games in.”

The team also was bolstered by a double-double from Kadary Richmond. Richmond now has 497 career assists and 411 assists at Seton Hall, moving him past Paul Lane and Nick Galis and into sole possession of 10th all-time in program history.

Dre Davis finished with 14 points, Dylan Addae-Wusu poured in 12 points, and Jaden Bediako went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to finish with 10 points. Seton Hall is 20-1 this season when leading at halftime. The Pirates shot a torrid 51.6 percent from the field and forced 13 Runnin’ Rebels turnovers.

Seton Hall’s 23 wins this season is tied for the 10th most in program history. The last time the Pirates won at least 23 games was 2016 when the Big East champion-Pirates won 25 games. The Hall improved to 11-19 all-time in NIT games and is in the semifinals for the first time since 1953.

Bet Seton Hall to Win
NIT Lines Today, Basketball USA