UC Riverside
Idaho
Highlanders Break Road Losing Streak With 81-76 Win Over Idaho
2/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The UC Riverside Highlanders earned their first win away from the Student Recreation Center since September with an 81-76 victory over the host Idaho Vandals in a ESPNU Bracketbuster Tournament game in front of 1,013 fans at the Cowan Spectrum in the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho Saturday.
The win was the Highlanders' first true road win of the season. UCR defeated Eastern Illinois 64-55 on September 11th, 2006 in a neutral site game in Ames Iowa. Overall, UCR improved to 6-20 on the season. Idaho, now a member of the WAC, is now 3-23 on the season. It was the Highlanders' second win in a row over the former Big West members. The Vandals have lost nine in a row.
UC Riverside was led by freshman forward Henrik Thomsen, who scored 21 points and added three rebounds. Senior guard Justin Bell had 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Junior guard Larry Cunningham had 18 points, including eight-of-nine from the free throw line. Senior guard Dedrick Bates had a team-high nine rebounds to go with four points. Sophomore forward Christian Soto had nine points and sophomore guard Chris Johnson added eight points off of the bench. UCR shot 43.3% (26-of-60) from the field and hit 41.2% (7-of-17) from the three point line. UCR was 22-of-29 from the free throw line and had a 42-37 rebounding advantage over the Vandals.
Idaho was 39.3% (24-of-61) overall and 31.6% (22-of-32) from the free throw line. They were led by Keoni Watson's 27 points. David Jackson and Darren Nagel each had 13 points for Idaho.
The game featured seven lead changes and five ties.
The game was a back-and-forth affair with a bevy of free throws in the final minutes. However, it was Idaho's inability to foul that clinched the game for UCR. With 11.4 seconds left and UCR leading 79-76 following a three by Watson, UCR called a timeout to set up an inbound play. Soto inbounded to Bell, who split his defenders and got the ball to Cunningham, who hammered home a dunk to put the exclamation point on the 81-76 win.
The Highlanders led for the better part of the first half, building the margin to eight following a 12-2 run that made it 27-19 with 7:35 remaining. However, the Vandals outscored UCR 15-7 through the rest of the half, tying the game with a short jumper at the buzzer by Jackson that tied the game at 34-34. UCR shot 43% (12-of-28) from the field and 5-of-10 from the three point line. Thomsen had 15 points in the first.
