Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team returns home this week for Big West Conference match-ups against UC Davis on Thursday, January 15 at 7 pm PT, and Hawai'i on Saturday, January 17 at 8:30 pm. The game against the Rainbow Warriors is being televised nationally on ESPNU.
Paul Loeffler (play-by-play) and Lamar Hurd (analyst) will have the call Saturday from courtside at the SRC Arena. The Highlanders are also hosting a Hot Ticket that evening, featuring a pre-game chaclk talk by Head Coach Dennis Cutts.
The Highlanders are 8-8 overall and 1-1 in conference following Saturday's 69-55 loss at UC Irvine (
box score/
recap). Taylor Johns (17.1 points per game) and Jaylen Bland (14.3) continue to pace UC Riverside in scoring, while the team challenges a number of Division I era offensive records including points per game (68.3), field goal percentage (.432) and three-point field goal percentage (.361).
UC Davis sits atop the Big West standings with a 2-0 record in conference play, and a 12-3 mark overall. The Aggies remained undefeated in conference thanks to a 73-67 OT win Saturday against Long Beach State.
UCD leads the conference in field goal percentage (.501) and three-point field goal percntage (.431) whie boasting the second highest scoring average in the Big West (71.1).
Corey Hawkins' 20.2 points per game scoring average is tops in the league, as is his 49.4 percent shooting from three-point range. Josh Ritchart is also averaging double figures at 12.3 points per game and making 42.3 percent of his shots from long range. Former UC Riverside forward Josh Fox comes off the bench for the Aggies, and is the team's third leading scorer at 9.5 points per game.
The Highlanders are 31-28 all-time against the Aggies (
view results) with wins in five of the last seven games including both meetings between the clubs from a year ago.
Hawai'i is 13-5 overall and 1-1 on the season after dropping their conference opener to Cal Poly, 61-57, and upending CSUN, 83-68. The Rainbow Warrior's 13 wins are the most in the Big West, but only four of their games have come away from the Aloha State.
Hawai'i leads the conference in scoring at 73.6 points per game, and defensively they average a Big West-best 9.6 steals per game while holding opponents to 29.7 percent from three-point range—one of the 50 lowest percentages in the nation.
The Rainbow Warriors boast one of the most balanced scoring attacks in the country as Aaron Valdes (16.3) and Garrett Nevels (11.4) average in double figures, but Isaac Fleming, Roderick Bobbitt, Mike Thomas and Negus Webster-Chan each average between 8.4 and 9.4 points per game.
The Highlanders are 1-5 all-time against Hawai'i (
view results), but the Rainbow Warriors have won each of the last five meetings.
