Long Beach, CA—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team remains on the road this weekend, traveling to Long Beach State for a 4 pm PT tip at the Pyramid on Saturday, January 7.
The Highlanders are coming off of an 82-76 loss at CSUN to open Big West play (
box score/
recap). UC Riverside carried a 13-point lead over the Matadors into the second half, but CSUN mounted a comeback to secure the victory. Chance Murray (
Los Angeles, CA) scored a career-high 21 points in the loss, and leads the Highlanders averaging 11.0 points per game
Despite the loss, UC Riverside is enjoying an offensive resurgence of late, averaging 76.0 points over the last two games while making 49.6 percent of their shots from the field, and 41.9 percent from three-point range.
Gentrey Thomas (
Nova Scotia, Canada) is averaging 16.7 points over his last three games, while making 21 of 39 shots from the field. He is third in scoring on the team, averaging 10.9 points per game. Secean Johnson (
Philadelphia, PA) is second at 10.9 points per game.
The Highlanders have seen improvement on the defensive side of the ball, holding their last three opponents to a combined 30.1 percent shooting from the field. In the team's previous six games, opponents connected on better than 50 percent of their shots from the field on four occasions.
Long Beach State went 5-11 during non-conference play, taking on a number of nationally-renowned programs like North Carolina, Louisville, UCLA, Washington and Kansas. The 49ers dropped their Big West opener Wednesday, 82-67, at UC Irvine, despite 19 points from leading scorer Evan Payne.
Payne, who is averaging 14.8 points per game this season, leads a trio of double figure scorers for Long Beach State which includes Gabe Levin (12.2 ppg) and Justin Bibbins (10.7). After Bibbins, however, there is a healthy drop-off to fourth-leading scorer, Roschon Prince, who averages just 6.1 points per game.
Payne is one of the top three-point shooters in the Big West, connecting on 39.5 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Levin is the team's top rebounder at 6.2 boards per game, and Bibbins' 61 assists leads the 49ers.
Defensively, Long Beach State is giving up 81.2 points per game—nearly 10 more than they score—thanks to 47.0 shooting from the field and 39.7 percent from long range by the opposition.
The Highlanders are 11-36 all-time against Long Beach State, including 4-21 on the road. The team's split their two regular season meetings last year, but the Beach topped UC Riverside in the first round of the Big West Conference Tournament, 82-74 (
box score/
recap).
