The East Carolina Pirates (6-4) will compete with the Florida Gators (6-3) in Lakeland at the RP Funding Center on Thursday, December 14 at 7:00 PM ET. The Gators are moderately favored to win and have a point spread at -15 (-110).

The Pirates have gone 3-2 in their last five matchups, with some positive momentum overall. Their recent performance was a 68-62 defeat against the South Carolina Gamecocks, which ended their two-game winning streak.

RJ Felton leads the team in scoring at 16.2 points per game and is shooting 46.6 percent from the floor. Can he put up an impressive performance to help his team knock off a respectable Gators’ squad?

The Pirates are scoring 75.0 points a game and they are giving up 70.4 to opponents. They are shooting 44.3 percent from the field, which is on par with the Gators.

They have other notable stats such as 12.7 assists, 2.6 blocks, and 7.7 steals a game. Against the Gators, they will need to be consistent with these defensive stops in order to make an impact.

The Gators have won their last two games and are 3-2 over their previous five matchups. Their last battle was a 87-76 performance over the Richmond Spiders.

Walter Clayton Jr. is averaging 15.9 points per game and shooting 45.8 percent from the field. His performance against Felton will be a key factor for the outcome of this game.

The Gators are averaging 83.7 points per game and are slowing teams down to 73.7 points each game. They are connecting on 45.8 percent or their shots as a whole, which is slightly higher than the Pirates.

They are grabbing 43.8 rebounds as opposed to the Pirates’ 36.6 per game, which could make a difference in second chance opportunities. They are also adding 4.8 blocks and 7.3 steals each matchup.

MyBookie offers the odds for this matchup, revealing the Florida Gators as favorites to win. With the point spread, this could go either way, but the Gators are favored to win by at least 16.

Both teams have a quality chance to succeed in covering the point spread. This could be a toss up, especially if one team is playing slightly better than the other.

So far, the Gators have been able to defer teams by 10 points or more several times throughout this season. This could be one of those matchups that come down to the final few minutes for them to pull away and cover the spread.