Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team is back in the Inland Empire this weekend as the Highlanders take on Fresno Pacific Saturday, November 19 as part of Homecoming 2016. Tip against the Sunbirds is at 4 pm PT at the SRC Arena,
The Highlanders (0-2) put a scare into UNLV on Wednesday evening, leading with just over nine minutes to go in the second half, but the Rebels rallied for a 74-62 victory (
box score/
recap). Alex Larsson just missed out on a double-double against UNLV leading UC Riverside with 14 points and nine rebounds.
Malik Thames is the team's leading scorer, averaging 14.5 points per game. He is also the Highlanders' leading assist man (2.5) and third leading rebounder (4.5).
Three other Highlanders are averaging double figures: Larsson (10.0), Chance Murray (10.0) and Secean Johnson (10.5) the rest of the team is averaging just 13.5 points per game. UCR makes 33.9 percent of its shots from the floor, and 18.4 percent from three-point range.
Defensively, UC Riverside is allowing 72.5 points per game on 43.4 percent shooting from the floor and 34.9 percent from long distance.
Fresno Pacific is 0-3 on the year with losses to Saint Martin's, Western Oregon, and Cal State East Bay. During the Sunbirds preseason schedule, they traveled to Santa Barbara to take on the Gauchos, dropping an 82-62 decision to UCSB.
Kavika Jimenez leads Fresno Pacific's offense averaging 14.5 points per game. Nobody else is averaging more than 7.3 points per game, but seven players average between 5.0 and 7.3 points. The Sunbirds are making 40.6 percent of their field goal attempts, but just 27.3 percent from beyond the arc. They also make just 58.7 percent of their free throws.
The defensive side of the ball has been Fresno Pacific's Achilles Heal, as opponents are making 51.3 percent of their shots including 42.7 from three-point land.
The Highlanders are 6-1 all-time against the Sunbirds (
view results), but haven't squared off against Fresno Pacific since the 1992-93 season.
