Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team begins a four-game home stand this week with games against CSUN on Wednesday, February 3 and vs. UC Davis on Saturday, February 6. Both games tip at 7 pm PT, and are being broadcast nationally on ESPN3.
The Highlanders have won three-straight games, coming back from deficits of at least nine points in all three. Taylor Johns led the team in scoring in each game, and is averaging 23.0 points per game during that stretch, while making 56.8 percent of his field goal attempts (25 for 44).
Jaylen Bland connected on two more three-pointers in UC Riverside's most recent victory at Cal State Fullerton, and now needs 12 threes to break the Highlanders career long-distance record and 14 to set the single-season mark. Maurice Pullum '89 owns both records draining 100 threes during the 1988-89 campaign, and 193 in his two-year career.
UC Riverside is third in the conference in three-point field goal percentage (37.2%) and free throw percentage (74.6%) in Big West games, but they allow conference opponents to connect on a league-high 46.2 percent from the field and 45.2 from three-point range.
CSUN has lost four of its last five games to fall to 2-5 in conference and 7-14 overall. Kendall Smith leads four Matadors in double figure scoring averaging 16.8 points per game. He is joined by Michael Warren (13.5 ppg), one of the league's most effective and most prolific free throw shooters (93-115, 80.9%).
As a team, CSUN leads the Big West in field goal percentage in conference games at 45.9 percent. However, the Matadors also allow the opposition to make 46.0 percent of its field goal attempts, and are being out-rebounded by nearly eight boards per game.
The Highlanders are 35-39 all-time against CSUN (
view results), with wins in three of the last four games and seven of the last 11. UC Riverside won the first meeting between the clubs this season, 75-72, at Northridge, behind 24 points fro Bland, and a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double from Johns (
box score/
recap). Menno Dijkstra and Alex Larsson combined to score 21 points and grab 11 boards in the win.
UC Davis enters the week with a 9-11 overall record, and wins in four of its last five games. At 4-3 in Big West play, the Aggies are in fourth place, a half game up on the Highlanders.
Former UC Riverside forward Josh Fox leads UCD in scoring (14.7 ppg) and is second rebounding (6.9) while ranking fifth in the Big West in field goal percentage (53.9%). Siler Schneider (10.2) and Brynton Lamar (10.0) are also averaging in double figures for the Aggies, and both are among the conference leaders in three-point field goal percentage at 39.0% and 43.5% respectively.
Davis is second in the league in three-point field goal percentage (37.8%) in Big West games, but last in the conference in free throw percentage (65.8%).
The Highlanders are 31-31 all-time against the Aggies (
view results), but have lost the last three meetings, including a 58-55 loss at Davis on January 21 of this year (
box score/
recap). UC Davis' Josh Fox and Darius Graham combined to score 41 points on the night, making 12 of 21 shots from the field, and 13 of 15 from the free throw line.
