Men's Basketball Looks To Bounce Back Saturday vs. UC Davis On ESPN3

Highlanders In Week Thirteen

Game Notes

Online Yearbook

vs. UC Davis

Saturday, February 6, 7:00 pm PT

Riverside—UC Riverside's Comeback Kids came within inches of picking up their fourth straight come-from-behind victory Wednesday evening, completely erasing a 20-point deficit against CSUN before falling, 73-71. The Highlanders look to bounce back this Saturday as they host UC Davis as part of a Women's-Men's double header on ESPN3. UC Riverside's Women's Team takes on CSUN at 4 pm PT, while the Men's Team takes on the Aggies at 7 pm

Jaylen Bland posted his second straight 20-plus point game Wednesday, making six of 10 three pointers to move past Ricky Porter into sole possession of second place on the Highlanders career made three-pointers list. He needs just six more this season to pass Maurice Pullum (1987-89) for the top spot, and eight more to become the program's single-season record holder. Pullum owns that mark as well with an even 100 set in the 1988-89 campaign.

Bland's 93 made threes lead the nation, and his 3.72 makes per game are second among all Division I players. With 11 more three-pointers, the senior will move into the Big West Conference single-season top 10 list. The league record is 152 set by UNLV's Freddie Banks in the 1986-87 season.

Bland is also looking to become just the third member of the Highlanders over the last 22 years to average better than 17.0 points per game in a season. The other two are Kyle Austin (17.6 in 2009-10) and Phil Martin (17.5 in 2011-12).

As a team, UC Riverside is connecting on 37.6 percent of its shots from long range, which is the highest percentage since the 2008-09 team connected on 37.7 percent. The 1987-88 through 1989-90 versions of the Highlanders all connected on better than 40-percent of their three-pointers, led by the 1987-88 team's 45.1 percent.

Taylor Johns continues to make a late run at the Highlanders career scoring record. Larry Cunningham currently sits in the top spot with 1,502 career points. Johns added 13 to his total on Wednesday night, and now has 1,342 for his career. With seven regular season games remaining, and at least one Big West Tournament game, Johns needs to average 20.1 points over those eight contests to pass Cunningham.

UC Davis enters the week with a 9-12 overall record, following a 61-57 loss at Cal State Fullerton on Thursday evening. That defeat dropped the Aggies to 4-4 in Big West play, a half game ahead of the Highlanders, and also handed them their ninth road loss in 10 tries.

Former UC Riverside forward Josh Fox leads UCD in scoring (14.2 ppg) and is second rebounding (6.8) while ranking eighth in the conference in field goal percentage (53.9%). Brynton Lamar (10.1) and Siler Schneider (10.0) are also averaging in double figures for the Aggies, and both are among the league leaders in three-point field goal percentage at 42.0% and 36.5% respectively.

Davis ranks last in the Big West in scoring in conference games at 59.6 points per contest. They boasted the second highest three-point field goal percentage in league play, prior to a 5 for 22 performance against the Titans which dropped them down to sixth at 34.6 percent. Big West opponents are scoring just 63.4 points per game against the Aggies, and connecting on just 31.9 percent from beyond the arc..

The Highlanders are 31-31 all-time against UC Davis (view results), but have lost the last three meetings, including a 58-55 decision at The Pavilion 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.

Men's Basketball Looks To Bounce Back Saturday vs. UC Davis On ESPN3

Next Event

Footer

Men's Basketball Looks To Bounce Back Saturday vs. UC Davis On ESPN3

Related News

Next Event

Related Videos

Footer