Riverside—Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team begins Big West play this week after posting its best non-conference record since the 2008-09 season. That year, the Highlanders recorded their first winning campaign as a Division I program with a 17-13 mark.
UCR hosts Cal State Fullerton in its home opener on Thursday, January 8 beginning at 7 pm PT before traveling to UC Irvine on Saturday, January 10 for a 7 pm tip against the Anteaters.
Jaylen Bland scored a career-high 26 points in the Highlanders most recent game (box score/recap), connecting on six three-pointers to raise his season total to 44. That leads the conference, and he is on pace to challenges the program record of 100 set by Maurice Pullum back in the 1988-89 campaign.
Cal State Fullerton enters conference play riding a five-game winning streak and moving over the .500 mark for the first time this season. The Titans have struggled offensively this season averaging 64.9 points per game (2nd lowest in the Big West) while making 41.4 percent of their field goal attempts (2nd lowest) and 32.1 percent of their three-pointers (4th lowest). They are among the conference leaders, however, in free throw percentage (3rd), free throw attempts (3rd) and fewest turnovers per game (3rd). Defensively they are susceptible from the outside as they allow their opponents to make 37.7 percent of their shots from long distance.
Alex Harris leads three Titans in double figure scoring at 15.5 points per game. He is joined by Lanerryl Johnson at 11.7 and Moses Morgan at 11.1.
The Highlanders are 18-27 all-time against the Titans. In their most recent game, UCR snapped a five-game losing skid to Cal State Fullerton with a 72-69 victory at the SRC Arena.
