Box Score Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team erased a 12-point second half deficit Saturday evening, but Secean Johnson's three-pointer at the buzzer was just off the mark, and Cal State Fullerton escaped with a 56-55 victory

The loss prevented the Highlanders from moving up in the Big West standings. With four games remaining, UC Riverside is in seventh place, but is just two games back of third place CSUN and Long Beach State
 

2016-17 Big West Men's Basketball Standings
	Team	W	L
1	UC Davis	8	3
2	UC Irvine	8	3
3	CSUN	7	5
4	Long Beach State	7	5
5	Cal State Fullerton	6	5
6	Hawai'i	6	6
7	UC Riverside	5	7
8	Cal Poly	3	8
9	UC Santa Barbara	2	10

Trailing by 12, 34-22, with 18:13 to go, the Highlanders scored 22 of the next 26 points to take a 44-36 lead at the 8:47 mark. Tré Coggins made a pair of free throws on the Titans next possession, and Lionheart Leslie scored the next 10 points for Cal State Fullerton as they regained the lead.

With 44 seconds left on the clock, Johnson was fouled, and made a pair of free throws to put UC Riverside back on top, 55-54.  The Titans called a time out, and set up a play for Leslie. His shot with 26 seconds remaining was off the mark, but he grabbed his own rebound, and Kyle Austin scored the go-ahead bucket with 17 seconds to go.

Highlanders Head Coach Dennis Cutts called a time out of his own with 12 ticks on the clock to set up one final play. The Titans defended it well, however, knocking the ball the ball loose. It ended up in Johnson's hands, and his three pointer as time expired was just off the mark.

UC Riverside got a career-high 17 points out of Menno Dijkstra, but committed 21 turnovers on the night—their second straight game with three dozen miscues. The Highlanders also held the Titans to 23.3 percent shooting in the second half, and 31.1 percent for the game

UC Riverside is on the road this Saturday at UC Irvine, where they take on the Anteaters at 9 pm PT on ESPNU.