PORTLAND, Ore.— Saturday night proved to be a battle between the Highlanders and Vikings as the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team (0-2) fell on the road to Portland State (1-1). Turnovers would be the deciding factor in the game as UCR was unable to take care of the ball against a scrappy PSU team.
The 1st half was evenly matched as both teams traded off points and no lead ever grew bigger than seven. The score was tied five times as the two teams headed to the locker rooms iced at 32-32, but the first half numbers truly favored the Vikings. Portland State managed to put up 14 more shots than the Highlanders in the first 20 minutes forcing 15 turnovers and scoring 22 off of those opportunities.
Despite losing the ball that many times, UCR made the most of its attempts shooting an efficient 14-for-22 (63.6%) in the 1st.
The back-and-forth style scoring continued in the 2nd half as neither team led by more than four points, but the Vikings would find a defensive rhythm with just eight minutes to go. Down 58-56, Portland State would put together a 12-0 run holding the Highlanders scoreless for nearly eight minutes to close out the game. UCR would be forced to send he Vikings to the line and attempt quick three's and PSU would hold tough to take it 71-64.
The Highlanders ended the night with 24 turnovers as a team and the Vikings made the most of them collecting 30 points of to's. Similar to the 1st half, UC Riverside would make the most of the looks they did get shooting 44.7% from the field.
A bright spot on the night for UCR was the fact that this team is truly unselfish as five different players saw double figures. Dikymbe Martin, Eric Rwahwire, and Callum McRae each had 10 points, while Jordan Gilliam and Dragan Elkaz led the way with 11.
UC Riverside again found success from deep hitting nine threes in the game, but were beat down low as the Vikings outscored the team 42-22.
The Highlanders will now finish out their season opening road stint this Tuesday as the team will head to UNLV to face the Running Rebels. The game is set to start at 7:00 PM.
