Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team has six more games remaining on its 2014-15 regular season scheduled, and each of the next three, beginning with Saturday's 5 pm tip against UC Irvine, will be played in the friendly confines of the SRC Arena.
The Highlanders dropped a 73-52 decision to Hawai'i on Thursday as the offense went cold in the first half. UC Riverside's leading scorers on the year, Taylor Johns (16.3) and Jaylen Bland (15.4) scored 10 and 13 points respectively in the loss, but a a team the Highlanders made just 26.9 percent of their shots from the field.
Bland now has 75 made three-pointers on the year, and needs 26 more to break Maurice Pullum's program record for threes in a season.
The Highlanders are trying to climb back into the battle for an upper division finish in the Big West, while UC Irvine looks to keep pace with front-running UC Davis. The Eaters are a game and a half back of the Aggies, and have already lost to them once this season. The rematch is scheduled for the final game of the regular season for both clubs on Saturday, March 7.
Irvine has been without the services of 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye for much of the season, but they still have one of the best offenses in the conference ranking only behind Davis in points per game, field goal percentage and three-point percentage. They also allow the second fewest points per game in the league.
Will Davis III paces a balanced 'Eaters attack averaging 12.1 points per game. Alex Young (10.6) and Luke Nelson (10.1) also average in double figures for UCI.
UC Riverside had dropped five straight games to the Anteaters, and is 23-34 all-time against UC Irvine.
