Big West First Round Recap

UC Riverside 72, Cal Poly 63
Four Highlanders scored in double figures led by forward Nate Carter as UC Riverside defeated Cal Poly 72-63 in the opening game of the Big West Tournament.

In a turnover plagued game where the two teams combined for 39 miscues, the Highlanders used a 10-0 run to close out the first half and never looked back.

The run started on a technical foul on the Mustangs for having an illegal player checking into the game. Junior Vladimir Lisinac on Cal Poly was left off the scorekeeper’s stat book resulting in two free throws. Trailing 25-22, Carter made one of two free throws as Riverside finished out the first half with three consecutive three-pointers.

Mustangs senior Varnie Dennis was in foul trouble all night and wasn’t a major factor in the Cal Poly offense. He did though score 14 points and grabbing 15 rebounds before fouling out. Dennis was one of four Mustangs who scored in double figures along with Shane Schilling (13), Eric Jackson (11) and Nick Enzweiler (10).

Cal State Northridge 80, Cal State Fullerton 70
Matador forward Ian Boylan scored a career-high 31 points as Cal State Northridge defeated Cal State Fullerton 80-70 Wednesday night.

The 6-6 junior was 11-19 from the field including 4-8 from three point range.

The two teams played each other just four days earlier with the Titans easily defeating the Matadors 95-70 at the Matadome.

Unfortunately, for the Titans, the outcome of this game was the opposite.

Thanks to a great defense performance by the Matadors and foul trouble on 6-11 Pape Sow, the Titans were unable to advance to the next round of the Big West Tournament.

Joseph Frazier started for the first time since Matador head coach Bobby Braswell removed his 11 game suspension and he made an impact on the offensive end with 20 points on 6-7 shooting.

Sow had 21 points but just four rebounds for the Titans. Freshman Bobby Brown came off the bench to score 16.