The Big South championship is at noon on Sunday, and we have a Winthrop Eagles vs High Point Panthers prediction. The Big South is out ahead of the rest of the tournament slate, and theirs will be only the second ticket punched after SIUE won the Ohio Valley on Saturday night. High Point has led the Big South all season, finishing with a 14-2 conference mark and 28-5 overall. Winthrop finished tied for second in the conference, and they beat out UNC-Asheville on Saturday to make their way to the final. High Point won both regular season matchups by 22 points, and that makes it surprising that the spread is only 6.5 on Sunday. I think there is plenty of reason to think that High Point will win for a third time this season. Give me the Panthers, and make it a best bet.

Every time I hear someone say, “it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season,” I want to reply, “not if you are just better.” That’s the situation we have here. This High Point team is a strong team, and as a likely 13 or 14 seed in the NCAA tournament, they could give a top seed some trouble. They are a strong offensive team (#23 in offensive efficiency, per KenPom), they take care of the basketball on offense, and they get a lot of second chance points. They beat Winthrop in different ways in the regular season. In one matchup, the Panthers dominated the glass, and in the other game, the rebounding margin was even but Winthrop only made 2 triples on the entire game. Winthrop will need to have both elements go their way if they are going to compete in this game. High Point is the better team, and this is a very favorable matchup for the Panthers. They have dominated the Eagles twice already, and there is no reason to think they won’t control this championship game either. Give me High Point.

Winthrop vs High Point Prediction: High Point -6.5 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable to -8.5.