San Luis Obispo—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team travels up the coast this weekend for a Saturday, February 4 tilt with Cal Poly. Tip is slated for 7 pm PT. The Highlanders Women's Basketball Team takes on the Mustangs as part of a double-header at 4 pm.
UCR dropped its second straight game, Thursday, in a 72-63 loss to Hawai'i (
box score/
recap). The Highlanders trailed by as many as 20 points, and sliced the deficit to three with just over a minute to go, but couldn't complete the comeback, UC Riverside made 75.0 percent of its shots from the field in the second half, and 50.0 percent for the game.
Dikymbe Martin paced the Highlanders with 21 points, and is averaging 15.8 points per game over his last four contests. He is also making 52.0 percent of his shots from the floor, and 57.1 percent from long distance during that stretch.
Chance Murray took over the team lead in scoring thanks to a 15-point night against the Rainbow Warriors. He is now averaging 11.3 points per game—just ahead of Secean Johnson's 11.2 points per game.
Despite the loss to Hawai'i, UC Riverside still has its best-ever Big West Conference record in its history through eight games at 4-4.
After dropping its first five conference games of the year, Cal Poly has won two of three, with both wins coming against the top two teams in the Big West—UC Irvine (6-2) and UC Davis (5-2).
Prior to the Mustang's win over the Anteaters, Cal Poly lost 10 straight games. However, seven of those losses were on the road, two were to Pac-12 teams, and one was in overtime.
Cal Poly is struggling on the both ends of the floor this season. Offensively in league play, the Mustangs are making 40.4 percent of their shots from the floor (second lowest in the conference), and averaging 67.2 points per game (third lowest).
Defensively against Big West foes, Cal Poly is allowing teams to make 48.1 percent of their shots from the field (highest in the league), and 38.9 percent from beyond the arc (second highest).
Four members of the Mustangs are scoring in double digits this season, but leading scorer Josh Martin (10.8 ppg) has not played since the fifth game of the season. Victor Joseph (10.8), Kyle Toth (10.4 ppg), and Donovan Fields (10.3) are also averaging double figures for Cal Poly. Toth is the team's most prolific three-point shooter on the season, knocking down 42.0 percent (50 of 119) of his shots from long range, but he is making just 32.5 percent in league play.
Martin was also the team's top rebounder early in the season, averaging 8.4 boards per game. Nobody else on the squad is averaging more than 4.4 rebounds per game.
The Highlanders are 46-48 all-time against Cal Poly, and the teams have split their last six meetings. Last year, the road teams won both games, with UCR picking up a 72-68 decision at Mott Gym (
box score/
recap), and the Mustangs winning, 86-78, at the SRC Arena (
box score/
recap).
