STOCKTON, Calif.— On the first day of the Tiger Thanksgiving Tournament, the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team dropped its matchup with host Pacific 74-54. The Highlanders fought hard and kept it close throughout, but eventually fell despite solid offensive performances by two of their veterans.

UCR got out to a quick lead thanks to two buckets from junior guard Dikymbe Martin, one of which came from behind the arc, but the two teams would trade off points until the Highlanders found themselves up 13-12.

From there, UC Riverside would encounter a scoring drought that lasted eight minutes and allowed the Tigers to land a 9-0 run. The Highlanders would pick up the offense towards the end of the half ending the first period on a buzzer-beater three from sophomore forward Ajani Kennedy.

The Highlanders struggled to take the lid off of the basket in the 1st half of play shooting just 28.6% from the field, but despite their 8-for-28 performance, trailed by just seven heading into the locker room 30-23.

UC Riverside hung with Pacific for the majority of the 2nd half as well, but with just under 10 minutes to go, the Tigers continued to answer the Highlander runs with streaks of their own. Pacific would reach its largest lead of the game with just one minute to go on the team's final basket, ending the game 74-54.

Martin and senior center Menno Dijkstra led the way offensively scoring 20 and 13, respectively, and shot an efficient 11-for-20 combined. The two veterans accounted for 11 of the team's 17 field goals on the day, hitting six three's, and Dijkstra added six rebounds and three blocks. Freshman forward Zac Watson added eight points and five rebounds.

The Highlanders will now look to a Friday night matchup with Elon tomorrow at 8:00 PM.