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(January 30, 2008) –
UC Riverside dropped a 64-53 decision to the UC Santa Barbara
Gauchos (16-5, 5-3 Big West) at the Student Rec Center Wednesday
night. Senior Larry Cunningham put up a team-high 13 points
for the Highlanders (4-15, 1-7 Big West) and passed Bobby
Walters for second place on the school's all-time scoring
list.
UCR rallied back after
trailing by 10 at the half and by as many as 12 at the 11:10
mark in the second half, to get within two, 52-50, with just
under six minutes remaining, Cunningham led the Highlanders'
second half charge with nine points after the break and finished
the night 5-of-5 from the foul line.
An 11-2 UC Riverside run
started at the 9:27 mark on junior Christian Soto's layup
as he was fouled on the play and then completed the three-point
play to make it 50-39 UCSB at that point. The Highlander run
cut the Gaucho lead to two after a freshman Jalonni Diggs
jumper but it would be as close as UCR would get. The battle
tested veteran UCSB squad held their composure though and
answered the Riverside rally with12-3 run of their own over
the final six and a half minutes to pick up their fourth conference
win out of their last five games.
The lights out three-point
shooting by the Gauchos proved to be the difference as James
Powell went off for a career-high 25 points including six
threes. The Big West's second leading scorer, Alex Harris,
added 19 points after hitting 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
UCSB used 15 first half
points by James Powell, who knocked down four threes along
the way, to give the Gauchos a 26-16 advantage at the half.
UCR trailed after shooting only 4-of-17 (23.5%) from the floor
and committing 13 turnovers. Junior Aaron Scott battled with
the Santa Barbara bigs down low, bringing down six boards
to lead all rebounders at the break.
Soto battled hard down
low all night to finish with eight points and six rebounds
as did Scott who put up seven points along with his team-high
seven boards. Junior Cleavon Barlow also chipped in with seven
points and six boards as UCR finished the night 17-of-41 (41.5%)
from the floor. UCSB finished with 11 three's and produced
a 15-of-19 performance from the charity stripe to pick up
the victory.
Cunningham's jumper at
the 15:15 mark tied him with Bobby Walters (1971-74) for second
place on UCR's all time scoring list. Less than a minute later,
Cunningham's layup gave him sole possession of the second
spot and he now has 1,285 career points. He trails Howard
Lee (1969-72), who sits at first place with 1,386 career points,
by 101 points with nine regular season games remaining.
UCR will host Cal Poly
for a Big West match-up set to broadcast on Fox Sports Network's
Prime Ticket on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in the Student Rec Center.
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