Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team continues its four-game home stand Saturday with a 7:30 pm PT tip against Cal Poly. The game is being televised on Fox Sports West.
The Highlanders have lost two straight heading into the weekend, but could easily be on a five-game winning streak. They dropped a two-point decision to CSUN on February 3 (
box score/
recap) and a one-point game to UC Davis on February 6 (
box score/
recap).
Taylor Johns continued his recent torrid stretch with two more double-figure scoring efforts. He is averaging 19.6 points over his last five games while connecting on 56.7 percent of his shots from the field over his last six. He has also become nearly automatic at the free throw line making 36 of his last 42 from the charity stripe (.857).
Jaylen Bland continues to lead the Highlanders in scoring at a 16.9 points per game clip, and he moved ever closer to the program single-season and career three-point field goal records with a nine for 18 performance from beyond the arc last week. He now needs three to secure the career mark and five to grab the single-season standard. Maurice Pullum '89 is the current record holder with 100 makes in the 1988-89 season, and 193 over-his two-year UC Riverside career. Bland's 96 made threes on the year are top in the nation, and 3.69 makes per game rank third.
Thanks in part to Bland's efforts, the Highlanders rank second in the Big West in three-point field goal percentage at 37.0 percent, and they are now the third best free throw shooting team in the conference at 70.2 percent.
Cal Poly is 8-15 overall and 2-8 in Big West competition having lost five straight games including a 73-70 decision at Long Beach State on Thursday. The Mustangs from previous years—the ones who ranked among the top teams in the nation in scoring defense, and played at one of the slowest paces in the country —are no more. In their place is a fast-paced, high-scoring offense, with a defense that gives up more points than it allows.
A balanced scoring attack is still a feature of the Cal Poly offense however as the Mustangs boast two double-digit scorers in David Nwaba, at 12.1 points per game, and Reese Morgan at 10.2. Five other players, however average between 6.0 and 9.1 points per game. Cal Poly also has one of the league leaders in field goal percentage on its roster in Brian Bennett (.530) and two of the top long-range shooters in Taylor Sutlive (.427) and Morgan (.411).
The Mustangs rank third in the Big West in three-point field goal percentage (.358) and in scoring averaging 74.0 points per game. Defensively, they allow the most points in the conference at 75.9 points per game, while the opposition connects at a league-high 45.9 shots from the floor and 37.5 percent from beyond the arc.
The Highlanders are 46-47 all-time against Cal Poly (
view results) with wins in each of the past two games, and three of the last five.
