Saturday, February 19
Fresno, CA
7:00 PM
UC Riverside
49
at
68
Fresno State (BracketBusters)
Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta
Fresno State's 25-3 Second-Half Run Sends Highlanders To 68-49 Loss.
2/19/2011 7:35:55 PM | Men's Basketball
Fresno, CA—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team opened the second half on an 11-3 run to take a two point lead with just over 16 minutes remaining in the game, but the Highlanders went cold the rest of the way as Fresno State came away with a 68-49 victory Saturday evening. It was the first ESPN Sears BracketBusters game loss for UCR who won its previous five games in the series
Elliott Berry's fastbreak jumper put the Highlanders on top for the first time in the second half with 16:43 remaining, but after the subsequent media timeout, Fresno State caught fire on both ends of the floor scoring 25 of the next 28 points to open up a 22-point advantage.
The Bulldogs pounded the ball inside in the second 20 minutes of play outscoring the Highlanders 28-10 in the paint. They also outrebounded UCR 22-11 scoring 12 second chance points in the second half to UC Riverside's two.
Phil Martin helped the Highlanders stay close in the early going as he led all scorers with 10 points in the first period on 4-of-6 shooting from the field. The rest of the team was just 5 of 20 from the field, but UC Riverside's defense held Fresno State to 40.0 percent shooting in the first to stay within six, 29-23 at the break.
Greg Smith scored 15 of his game-high 23 points after intermission including 10 in the decisive second-half run. He also finished with 14 rebounds.
Martin finished with 13 for UC Riverside and Javon Borum scored 11 to run his streak of consecutive double-digit scoring efforts to 22.
The Highlanders have four games remaining on their regular season schedule, all at home, as the battle for Big West Conference seeding continues. UC Riverside hosts Pacific this Thursday February 24 at the SRC beginning at 7 pm PT.
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