Men's Basketball Looks To Even Conference Record In Aloha State

January 18	9 pm PT	at Hawai'i	Fox Sports 1350 AM	Live VIdeo	Listen Live	Live Stats	Purchase Tickets
					Game Notes

Honolulu, HI—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team looks to even its Big West Conference record this weekend with a Saturday, January 18 game at Hawai'i. Tip is slated for 9 pm PT.

The Highlanders picked up their first conference win of the season on Thursday at UC Davis, and they did so in dramatic fashion erasing a 19-point second-half deficit in an 81-69 victory over the Aggies.

That improved UCR's record to 6-11 overall and 1-2 in the Big West.

Taylor Johns paced the Highlanders with 22 points including two on a reverse dunk off of an alley-oop pass from Nick Gruninger that has been making the rounds in the twitterverse ever since (watch the dunk).

Johns leads UC Riverside averaging 13.3 points per game, and he is followed closely by Chris Patton at 12.7 points and Sam Finley at 10.4.

Hawai'i began conference play with a pair of losses dropping a 77-65 decision at Cal Poly, and a 79-78 squeaker at Cal State Northridge. The Rainbow Warriors went 11-3 during the non-conference portion of their schedule, but only two of those games played on the mainland.

Christian Standhardinger leads one of the most potent offenses in the conference averaging 17.6 points per game. Hawai'i boasts three other double-digit scorers in Garrett Nevels (14.1), Isaac Fotu (13.6) and Brandon Spearman (10.8).

As a team, the Rainbow Warriors average 47.9 percent shooting from the field and 34.5 from long distance, but those numbers drop to 44.9 and 26.2 percent in conference. Their defensive numbers see a similar drop in effectiveness against the Big West as opponents shoot 43.8 percent from the floor and 33.4 percent from three-point range overall, but 49.0 percent and 43.3 percent in conference play.

The Highlanders are 1-3 all-time against the Rainbow Warriors, but Hawai'i has won three straight including both meetings from a year ago, 76-61, at Hawai'i (box score/recap) and, 72-68, at UC Riverside.

Men's Basketball Looks To Even Conference Record In Aloha State

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