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(March 12, 2008) –
UC Riverside picked up their second ever post-season win with
a 62-54 victory over Cal Poly in Wednesday's first-round match-up
of the Big West Conference Tournament in Anaheim, CA. Senior
Larry Cunningham led all scorers with 23 points as the Highlanders
(9-20) advance to the quarterfinal round and face #3 seed
Cal State Fullerton Thursday night.
The Highlanders used their
defense to pick up the progam’s first post-season win
since beating Cal Poly in the 2003-04 conference tournament.
UCR held the Mustangs (12-18) to a season-low 28.8 % shooting
and only 17 first-half points.
UCR made their shots when it counted as seven different players
recorded baskets and each seemed to come at time when Cal
Poly was set to make a run.
Riverside led throughout,
building a 11-4 lead with just under nine minutes remaining
in the first-half. They would go on to open up leads as large
as ten, 18-8 after sophomore Sean Cunningham’s layup
at the 4:13 mark. The Mustangs broke out of their shooting
skid with a 9-2 run to close out the half and cut the Highlander
lead to 20-17 at the break.
Cal Poly opened the second
half with a three to tie the game at 20-20. Each team would
trade baskets over the next seven minutes before Larry Cunningham’s
jumper from the right wing, gave UCR a 32-30 lead at the 12:27
mark. The Mustangs answered again with a Shawn Lewis jumper
but back-to-back baskets by junior Cleavon Barlow and junior
Severin Gates put UCR up 39-34 with 9:47 remaining.
UCR continued to force the
Mustangs into tough shots and held off some late Cal Poly
runs to pick up the post-season victory. The game was iced
with free-throws as freshman Jalonni Diggs stepped up by knocking
down five of six free-throws in the final minutes and Larry
Cunningham made his final three attempts from the line for
the Highlanders.
Barlow led all rebounders
with 14 boards as UCR out-rebounded Cal Poly 44-37. Junior
Aaron Scott added 11 points and eight boards.
The Highlanders come back
to play #3 seed Cal State Fullerton tomorrow night at 6:00
p.m.
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