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(February 2, 2008) –
UC Riverside beat the Cal Poly Mustangs 62-58 in front of
a season-high 1012 fans at the Student Rec Center Saturday
afternoon. Freshman Jalonni Diggs finished with a career-high
16 points for the Highlanders who improved to 5-15 overall
and 2-7 in the Big West with the victory.
UCR earned the Big West
win while the game was broadcast on Fox Sports Network Prime
Ticket.
Another night of tough
defense by the Highlanders holding a good Cal Poly (8-12,
3-5 Big West) squad to 58 points on 38.2% shooting including
2-of-16 (12.5%) from three-point land. The Highlanders meanwhile,
received double-digit scoring efforts from four different
players as they knocked down seven three's and won the battle
on the boards 41-27.
Both teams came out answering
each other's baskets in the opening minutes before Cal Poly
grabbed a 19-18 lead at the 9:04 mark. The Highlanders then
erupted to close out the first half with a 18-5 run, started
on a three by junior Severin Gates at 8:23. The UCR defense
stepped up and began to clamp down on the Mustang offense,
forcing tough shots therefore allowing the Highlander offense
to relax. The offense did just that, as they started to hit
their open shots and attacked the basket eventually opening
up their largest lead of the half on back-to-back threes by
junior Cleavon Barlow and freshman Jalonni Diggs to put the
Highlanders up 29-21 at the 4:47 mark.
The hot shooting continued
to finish out the half, as a Gates took a beautiful pass through
two Mustang defenders from junior Aaron Scott and laid it
up and in to continue the run. Barlow followed with a steal
on the next CPU possession in which he jumped over the scorer’s
table to save the ball for the Highlanders. On the ensuing
play, Larry Cunningham knocked down a three from the left
corner and Gates then added another jumper to give UCR a 36-22
lead with under two minutes left until the break. Cal Poly
added two free-throws before the break to go into the half
down 36-24.
Larry Cunningham led all
scorers with 10 first-half points as UCR shot 13-of-27 (48.1%)
including 6-of-10 from behind the arc. Chaz Thomas led the
Mustangs with nine points as Cal Poly finished the first 20
minutes shooting 9-for-24 (37.5%) from the floor.
Cal Poly would rally back, taking advantage of some UCR shots
that rolled in and out allowing the Mustangs to cut the Highlander
lead to 44-42 a the 9:24 mark.
UCR held tough using consecutive
buckets by sophomore Sean Cunningham and Diggs to open up
a 54-48 advantage with 2:02 left on the clock. Cal Poly followed
with a basket at 1:46 to cut it to 54-50 Highlanders, but
two made free-throws by Scott re-opened up the six-point cushion,
56-50 with 1:18 remaining.
Two more UCR free-throws,
this time by Diggs, made it 58-52 with 47 seconds left. Each
team would trade fouls and both squads would make their opportunities
at the stripe. Two makes by Larry Cunningham at the line with
19 seconds left sealed up the win for the Highlanders who
made 17-of-19 from the stripe throughout the game.
Thomas and Titus Shelton
put up 19 and 13 points respectively for the Mustangs.
Eight different UC Riverside
players recorded baskets with Larry Cunningham and Gates each
finishing with 12 points and Barlow added 10 points. Scott,
Barlow, and Gates also all finished with eight boards.
UCR is off until February
13th when they travel down to face Long Beach State.
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