Box Score Riverside—Jaylen Bland and Taylor Johns each poured in 21 points Saturday evening as the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team upended UC Irvine, 70-63.

The win helped the Highlanders (5-6) keep pace with Cal Poly (5-6) and UC Santa Barbara (6-4) in the race for an upper division finish in the Big West. UC Riverside has five more conference games remaining in the regular season beginning with a Thursday home game against the Gauchos at 7 pm PT.

The Anteaters led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but the Highlanders came storming back to trail by just two at the half. UC Irvine scored the first basket after the intermission, but UCR scored the next 11 points to go up by six, 43-37.

Two minutes later, the 'Eaters secured their final lead of the game at 46-45. The Highlanders scored nine of the next 10 points and never trailed the rest of the way.

Johns added 10 rebounds on the night, while Jaron Martin paced UC Irvine with 15 points.