RIVERSIDE, Calif.—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team (2-6) fell for the first time at home Thursday night as Cal Baptist (3-4) edged out the Highlanders 80-70 in the first Crosstown Showdown. Despite a slow scoring first half, the Highlanders never quit cutting the lead to single digits and nearly doubling their scoring efforts in the second half.

"CBU is an older, veteran team and they showed that tonight," Head Coach David Patrick said. "They came out aggressive and we didn't match them for the full 40 minutes."

The battle was evenly matched for the first 10 minutes of the game as both teams were locked at 17-17, but a 12-2 run by the Lancers would give CBU some separation heading into halftime 37-24.

The Highlanders struggled on the offensive end in the first period shooting .333 from the field, but the team would find its rhythm in the second. After heading to the locker room with just 24 on the board, UCR would drop 46 in the final 20 minutes behind a .539 shooting performance.

The host team would win the 2nd half 46-43, but it wasn't enough to retake the lead as the Lancers would claim the game 80-70.

"The bottom line is we lost the rebound battle and didn't get stops when we needed to," Patrick said. "We kept cutting the lead down, but then we gave them the timely baskets they needed."

The ball control was a bright spot for the Highlanders as the team only turned the ball over eight times and assisted on nearly half of its baskets. The Highlanders also won the free-throw battle shooting 20-for-24 (.833) from the line for the game and 14-for-15 (.933) in the second half.

Three Highlanders hit double digits Thursday night as both junior guard Dikymbe Martin and sophomore guard Jordan Gilliam both put up 18 points and freshman forward Zac Watson notched 10. Martin added a team high six rebounds and two assists as well.

UC Riverside will now hit the road again this weekend as the Highlanders are set to play Valparaiso Sunday morning.