Austin & Cunningham Combine For 35 But UCR Falls To Fullerton, 69-56

Saturday, January 9

Student Recreation Center

4:00 PM

University of California, Riverside

Cal State Fullerton

Austin & Cunningham Combine For 35 But UCR Falls To Fullerton, 69-56

1/9/2010 6:00:22 PM | Men's Basketball

Cal State Fullerton 69, UC Riverside 56 Box Score

The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team completed its three-game, conference-opening home stand Saturday evening before a season-high crowd of 1,176 and a live television audience tuning in on FSN West. Sean Cunningham (pictured) and Kyle Austin combined to score 35 points on the night, but it wasn't enough as Cal State Fullerton picked up the 69-56 win.

The loss dropped the Highlanders below the .500 mark at 7-8 and 1-2 in the Big West. The Titans improved to 7-7 overall and 2-1 in conference.

UC Riverside led 10-9 with 11:13 to go in the first when the Titans went on an 11-0 run over a 2:03 stretch to take a 10-point lead. The Highlanders cut the lead to four on two occasions but went into the locker room trailing 28-23. UCR was unable to take advantage of a solid defensive effort in the period—holding CSF to 34.4 percent shooting from the field including 18.2 percent from three-point range—as the Highlanders connected on just 30.8 percent of their own shots including 12.5 percent from long range.

UCR didn't fare much better early in the second as the Titans built a 12 points lead with 7:24 to go in the game following a Jacques Streeter free throw, 51-39. Lateef McMullan and Kyle Austin drained threes on UCR's subsequent possessions to cut the advantage to six.

Sean Cunningham's jumper at the 5:46 mark made it a 51-47 ballgame, but Cal State Fullerton scored eight of the next 10 points to push the lead back to double figures. The Highlanders put the Titans at the line for the remainder of the game in an effort to slice into the deficit, but the Titans nailed 10 free throws down the stretch winning by 13.

Aaron Thompson led four Titans in double figures with 17 points with Gerard Anderson adding 15, Devon Peltier contributing 14 off the bench, and Bryce Webster scoring 13. Cunningham led the Highlanders with 18 and Austin added 17, but no other UCR player manged to score more than eight points (McMullan).

The Highlanders now head out on their longest road trip of the season with four games away from the friendly confines of the Student Recreation Center. The road swing begins on Thursday, January 14 at Cal State Northridge and continues on Saturday, January 16 at UC Santa Barbara.