Highlanders Upset Titans 82-76 Behind Cunningham's 34

Saturday, February 3

Riverside, CA

UC Riverside

Cal State Fullerton

Highlanders Upset Titans 82-76 Behind Cunningham's 34

2/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Junior guard Larry Cunningham scored all of his career-high 34 points in the second half as UC Riverside upset league leaders Cal State Fullerton 82-76 in a Big West Conference game Saturday evening at the Student Recreation Center. The Highlanders win their second straight to improve to 5-17, 1-7 while the Titans fall to 16-5, 6-3.

After sitting the bench for all but three minutes of the first half with two fouls and missing his only field goal attempt, Cunningham scorched the Titans in the final 20 minutes, using an array of jumpers and drives. With UCR trailing 45-42 with 14:23 left, he scored seven straight Highlander points to keep the hosts close. Back-to-back three-pointers by sophomore guard Chris Johnson erased a six-point Titan lead and tied the game at 57-all with 9:08 left. Cunningham again took over, scoring nine of UCR’s next 11 points to stake them to a six-point advantage, 69-63, with 4:53 to go.

Cunningham found sophomore forward Christian Soto for a layup and followed with a jumper of his own to give the Highlanders their largest lead at 73-63 with 3:27 left. The Titans began to climb back and back-to-back buckets by Justin Burns reduced the margin to six. Cunningham answered back with a layup in traffic but free throws from Burns and Scott Cutley and a layup by Frank Robinson made it a four-point game, 75-71, with 46 seconds remaining.

With time running out, the Titans were forced to foul but UCR held on with strong shooting from the line down the stretch. Soto hit two foul shots and Cunningham closed it out with five of six from the line to give UCR its first conference victory of the season.

Cunningham finished the game 13-for-20 from the floor and 8-for-9 from the line as he surpassed his previous career high of 33 points, achieved on March 4, 2006 against UC Davis. The 34 points were also tied for sixth-most in a single game in school history and tied for second-most in the Division I era.

Johnson added 12 points and seven rebounds for UCR while senior guard Dedrick Bates came off the bench for 12 points and nine rebounds. Freshman guard/forward Henrik Thomsen chipped in nine points and seven rebounds while Soto also had seven boards to go along with seven points. UCR shot 46.2% (30-for-65) from the floor and 77.3% (17-for-22) from the line while hitting 5-of-15 (33.3%) from three-point range.

The Titans were led by Robinson’s 18 points and a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds by Burns. Cutley contributed 15 points and eight rebounds while Bobby Brown had 14 points and eight assists. CSUF shot 43.1% (28-for-65) overall but just 12.5% (2-for-16) from downtown. They made 18-of-30 (60.0%) at the foul line.

UCR set the tone early, racing out to a 14-2 lead in the first 7:12. The Highlander defense caused havoc, forcing five turnovers as the Titans connected on just one of their first 12 shots. A 7-2 run Fullerton cut the UCR lead to seven but four straight points from Bates pushed the advantage to 20-9 with 8:39 remaining in the first.

Fullerton responded with a 10-0 run to pull back to 20-19 but Johnson knocked down a jumper and added two free throws to build the cushion back to four. UCR never trailed in the first half and went into the locker room with a 27-26 lead.

UCR’s 55 second half points were the most in a half by the Highlanders since scoring 63 against the University of Puget Sound on December 21, 2005. It was the most in the second half since netting 56 versus Cascade College on December 4, 2004.