Beaumont, TX—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team remains on the road this weekend as the Highlanders travel to Lamar Sunday for a 12 pm PT tip against the Cardinals.
UCR (3-2) is still searching for its first road win of the 2015-16 campaign after an 87-81 loss at Rice on Friday (
box score/
recap). The Highlanders were plagued by fouls in the loss, committing 29 personals, which led to 37 Owls free throw attempts. Malik Thames paced UC Riverside with a career-high 16 points, and Secean Johnson just missed out on a double-double with 15 points and eight rebounds.
The Highlanders' trademarks this season have been shooting the three, defending against the three, and taking care of the basketball. They are averaging just 9.0 turnovers per game (ninth lowest figure in the nation), connecting on 10.8 threes per game (eighth) and allowing the opposition to make just 23.2 percent of its three-pointers (fourth).
Lamar is 2-2 on the season following a 92-84 loss at Rice on Wednesday evening. Kevin Booze leads three Cardinals in double digit scoring at 14.3 points per game. He is joined by Lincoln Davis (14.0) and Nick Garth (13.0). The Cardinals are outscoring opponents by 9.5 points on the year thanks mostly to a defense that is allowing made shots at a 36.8 percent clip including 24.6 percent from three-point range.
This is the third meeting between UC Riverside and Lamar (
view results). The two teams first met back on December 17, 1986 in a game that the Cardinals won 89-55. They met again 24 years later at the SMU Invitational with Lamar once again picking up the victory, 90-75 (
box score/
recap).
