UC Riverside
University of Puget Sound
Puget Sound Comes Back to Defeat Highlanders, 115-111
12/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The visiting University of Puget Sound overcame a 13-point halftime deficit to post a 115-111 victory over the host UC Riverside Highlanders in a non-conference game in front of 590 fans at the Student Recreation Center in Riverside Wednesday.
UCR fell to 0-8, while Puget Sound, a member of NCAA Division III, improved to 7-1.
Senior guard Rickey Porter led all scorers with a career-high 34 points, tied for the fifth highest individual scoring total in school history. Sophomore guard Larry Cunningham had a double-double with a season-high 27 points and 11 rebounds and junior guard Dedrick Bates had his first career double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. The double-doubles were the first for the Highlanders this season.
The Loggers had seven players in double figures, led by Zack McVey with 19 points and Chase Curtiss had 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Two other school records were toppled in the game, including personal fouls (39, previous record of 37 set at Southern Indiana on Dec. 28, 1990) and turnovers (36, previous record of 28 set vs. Oregon on 12/28/02). The 35 fouls called on UPS was the second most in school history.
The Highlanders led by 13 at halftime, but UPS turned up the pressure defense, forcing the Highlanders into 22 second half turnovers. The Loggers took the lead for the first time in the half at 75-74 with 13:11 left. The teams battled back and forth, and UCR led for the last time at 97-95 on a Larry Cunningham layup with 7:26 remaining. The Loggers led by six at 109-103 with 3:04, but UCR cut it to two at 113-111 on a layup by Christian Soto with 1:17 remaining. The Highlanders had a chance to regain the lead, but Porter's layup attempt with 13 seconds left was short and Josh Walker snagged the rebound and was fouled by Soto. He drained both free throws to give the Loggers the final 115-111 margin.
Porter led all scorers with 22 points in the first half, hitting 9-of-12 from the field and the Highlanders led by as many as 18 at 56-38 with 2:41 left in the first half. But Puget Sound went on a 12-4 run over the next minute to cut the lead to 10 at 60-50 with 54 seconds left. A Sean Cunningham trey in the final seconds gave the Highlanders a 13-point lead at the intermission.
