STOCKTON, Calif.— The Highlanders grabbed their second win of the season Friday night as the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team (2-4) defeated Elon 77-64 at the Tiger Thanksgiving Tournament. UCR played a great game of possession-basketball, which allowed them to limit turnovers and shoot an efficient 51.1% from the field and 43.5% from beyond the arc.
"We shoot a ton at practice so we knew that eventually the ball would start falling for us and we're happy it did tonight," Head Coach David Patrick said. "We talked a lot about making the extra pass and not settling for bad shots and I thought we did those things extremely well in this game."
The Highlanders won both the rebound and turnover battle for the first time this season collecting 36 boards and only turning the ball over 11 times.
The bench truly showed out for UCR combining for 31 points and the team spread the love offensively as three players reached double-digits and seven collected five or more.
"Any given night we have five guys on the court that can score the ball," Patrick said. "All the drills we do have taught us to share the ball really well."
UC Riverside opened up with five straight minutes of impenetrable defense jumping out to an 8-0 lead, but the Phoenix would rise and ice the game at 30-30 as both teams headed into the locker room.
The 2nd half was all Highlanders as UCR outscored Elon 47-34 in the final 20 minutes and ended the game hitting its last five field goals and extending its lead to as much as 17. The Highlanders would come away with a 77-64 victory.
Sophomore guard Jordan Gilliam led the offensive efforts with 17 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Sophomore Ajani Kennedy and freshman Dragan Elkaz each added 11 combining for five threes and nine rebounds as well.
"I'm proud of the way that Jordan bounced back from last night's game," Patrick said. "Despite starting slow he kept plugging away and took the direction we gave him greatly and really got us going. He orchestrated the game for us."
The Highlanders will close out the tournament tomorrow matching up with the undefeated Wildcats from Abilene Christian. The game is set to start at 5:30 PM and live audio coverage can be found on the team's schedule page.
"ACU is a great team," Patrick said. "They are a veteran group so we are going have to meet their physicality and take care of the ball."
