Riverside, CA—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team rings in the new year this Saturday with a 7 pm PT tip against CSU Bakersfield.
The Highlanders (9-6) had their four-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday evening in an 81-59 loss at Ohio (
box score/
recap). UCR's leading scorer on the season, Jaylen Bland, paced the Highlanders with 15 points in the defeat. He drained five of eight three-pointers in front of 30-plus family and friends who made the trip down from Michigan, and now ranks sixth in the nation in made three-pointers per game at 3.73. The senior also ranks fifth on UC Riverside's career list of three-pointers with 152, and needs 42 to pass Maurice Pullum for the top spot.
Freshman Menno Dijkstra had one of his best games of the year, Wednesday, making all five of his shots from the field and scoring a career-high 10 points while grabbing a team-high six rebounds. He is now making 67.3 percent of his field goal attempts.
Taylor Johns and Secean Johnson are also averaging double figures in scoring on the season at 14.2 and 11.1 points per game.
On defense, the Highlanders efforts on the perimeter continue to be their calling card as they allow opponents to make just 28.2 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. That is the 14th lowest three-point field goal percentage in the nation.
The Runners are 9-5 on the year following an 80-68 home win over Morgan State Thursday. Eight of those nine wins are at home, however, as CSUB is 1-5 away from the Icardo Center.
The Roadrunners boast four players averaging double figures this season led by Aly Ahmed's 14.1 points per game. He is joined by Damiyne Durham (13.8), Kevin Mays (13.0) and Dedrick Basile (10.3). More than 70 percent of Durham's shots are from three-point range and he connects on 36.2 percent from long distance. Mays and Ahmed average 8.6 and 6.5 rebounds per game respectively.
Bakersfield has taken 108 more shots than their opponents on the year thanks in part to grabbing 13.1 offensive rebounds per game compared 8.9 for the opposition.
The Highlanders are 31-41 against the Roadrunners over their 72-game history (
view results). Since CSUB made the transition to Division I, UC Riverside is 3-2 including a 59-58 road win a year ago (
box score/
recap). A Johns' layup with 12 seconds remaining helped the Highlanders erase an 11-point lead.
