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(March 13, 2008) –
Senior guard Larry Cunningham’s game-high 23 points
wasn’t enough for the Highlanders who dropped their
Big West Conference Tournament quarterfinal match-up with
#3 seed Cal State Fullerton 81-69 Friday night.
UC Riverside’s season
ends with a record of 9-21 including the program’s second
ever post-season victory in the school’s Division I
history after beating Cal Poly in Wednesday’s first
round.
The Highlanders struggled
to contain Fullerton's (22-8) outside weapons, as the Titans
shot 60.0% in the second half and knocked down eight from
behind the arc in the game. UCR battled hard despite committing
15 turnovers in the first half, and later settled into a groove
and took care of the ball, committing only three turnovers
in the second 20 minutes.
CSF used those 15 first-half
Highlander mistakes and also took advantage of UCR’s
9-of-25 (36.0%) first-half shooting to open up a 35-21 lead
at the break.
Cunningham led the Riverside
charge in the second half, as Riverside went on a 10-2 run
to cut the Titan lead to nine, 50-41 at the 14:27 mark. Sophomore
guard Sean Cunningham made a steal and dished to junior forward
B.J. Visman who finished off the run with a fast-break layup.
That would be as close as
UCR could get though, with the Fullerton offense continuing
to hit their shots, UCR could not keep up up. No matter how
tough of shots the Highlander defense forced the Titans into,
the CSF shot would fall. One last Riverside push, capped by
another Larry Cunningham three, cut it to 77-69 with 50 seconds
left. CSF ended any hopes of a UCR comeback by making their
final four free-throws to pick up the victory.
Junior forward Aaron Scott
finished with 12 points and six boards along with fellow junior
forward Christian Soto who battled hard down low all night
long against the CSF big men, putting up 10 points and grabbing
a team-high eight rebounds. UC Riverside’s all-time
leading scorer Larry Cunningham finishes his career with 1,502
points after producing back-to-back 23-point efforts in the
two tournament games.
The nine wins this season
ties the 2004-05 team for the second most wins in a season,
since joining Division I.
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