Syracuse clinches Big East title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/02/2010 - Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arinze Onuaku and Andy Rautins celebrated senior day in style, scoring 21 and 14 points, respectively, and in the process helped top-ranked Syracuse claim its first outright Big East title since 1991 with a comfortable 85-66 victory over St. John's.

The nation's top team, fresh of a dominant performance in front of a national audience Saturday night versus Villanova, again showcased the inside-out assault that has made it one of the favorite's come NCAA Tournament time.

Onuaku grabbed eight boards to go along with his team-leading point total, Rautins drained four treys, Wesley Johnson added 13 points on an economical 10 shots and Kris Joseph got to the charity stripe 12 times as part of a 13- point, six-rebound performance. Scoop Jardine chipped in 10 points off the bench for the Orange (28-2, 15-2 Big East), who have won four straight, will hold the top seed in next week's conference tournament in New York and appear locked in as a No. 1 seed come Selection Sunday.

D.J. Kennedy led St. John's (15-14, 5-12) with 19 points and Paris Horne donated 18 for the Red Storm, who are fighting a different battle at season's end, trying to stay above .500 as a viable selection for the NIT.

St. John's hung tough early, squaring the contest at 11 on a Sean Evans layup, but Rautins' mid-range jumper capped seven successive points moments later for the home team.

Another eight-point flurry as the Red Storm drew within three opened a double- digit lead. One of Rautins' signature long-distance daggers made the score 31-20 with just over six minutes remaining in the half.

The lead grew to as many as 16 in the closing minutes, and Syracuse held a 42-28 lead after 20 minutes of game action.

St. John's came within 11 early in the second half, but the margin grew to 70-51 on an Onuaku layup with just over eight minutes to play. The Red Storm were never able to put a huge dent in the deficit, and the final minutes were played as a swan song to the Syracuse departing seniors.

Game Notes

Syracuse leads the all-time series, 46-37...The Orange shot 51.7 percent from the floor despite making just 6-of-17 from beyond the arc. The three-point percentage plummeted to 2-of-8 when Rautins wasn't firing a trey...St. John's struggled from the charity stripe, making just 9-of-17.

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What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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