University of California, Riverside
Portland
Highlanders Fall to Pilots, 92-74
11/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Things started to come together for the UC Riverside Highlanders, but it wasn't enough to overcome the host University of Portland Pilots, who posted a 92-74 win in front of a crowd of 1,612 fans at the Chiles Center in Portland Sunday.
The Highlanders fell to 0-2 on the season, while Portland improved to 1-2.
UCR senior guard Rickey Porter had a game-high 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including four threes, and senior forward Steve Williams had 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Overall the Highlanders were 28-of-72 (38.9%) from the field and 7-of-30 (23.3%) from the three-point line.
The Pilots had five players in double figures, led by Pooh Jeter's 20 points, 11 coming on free throws, including eight in the second half. Marcus Lewis and Donald Wilson each had 15 points and Ben Sullivan and Kevin Field each had 14. The Pilots shot 52.6 from the field, hitting 30-of-57. They went to the free throw line 35 times, hitting 29 and shooting 82.9% from the line.
Trailing by 13 at halftime, UCR opened the second half on an 8-0 run to cut the score to 43-38 with 17:26 remaining in the half. A few minutes later the Highlanders shaved that margin to two at 46-44 on a trey by Porter.
But just like that the lead was back to nine for the Pilots as Wilson drained a three, followed by a Porter turnover that led to a Wilson fast-break dunk. Moments later Williams committed a turnover and Jeter drained a jumper to make the lead nine at 53-44 with 12:17 left.
UCR again got to within five at 55-50, but that would be as close as they would get. The Pilots put the game away a few minutes later, using an 8-0 run to turn a 66-60 score into a 74-60 lead with 4:28 remaining, never looking back.
In the first half, the teams were tied early at 6-6, but the Pilots went on a 16-2 run to build a 22-8 margin at 12:04, but the Highlanders responded with a flurry of seven straight points on baskets by Williams, Dedrick Bates and a trey from Porter to cut the lead to 27-20 with 6:00 minutes left, however the Pilots came right back to build the margin to as many as 15 at 41-26 with 1:24 left before finishing the half at 43-30.
The Highlanders again struggled with their shooting in the early going, hitting 13-of-38 from the field (34.2%) and 3-of-16 (18.8%) from the three point line. UCR was also unable to exploit the free throw line, not taking a charity shot until the 1:54 mark of the half when Porter drained one-of-two. That would be UCR's only free throws of the half, while in contrast the Pilots hit 11-of-14 (78.6%) from the line. Portland was 15-of-30 (50.0%) from the field and 2-of-3 from the three point line.
