David Dennis/All-Star Sports Photography

Box Score

CSU Bakersfield CSUB 4-8,0-1 Big West

UC Riverside UCR 8-5,1-0 Big West

CSU Bakersfield CSUB

4-8,0-1 Big West

Final

Dec. 29, 2022

UC Riverside UCR

8-5,1-0 Big West

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
CSU Bakersfield CSUB	35	24	59
UC Riverside UCR	29	42	71

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | December 29, 2022 | Written by James Tsitakis-Cecil

Higgins' Career Game Not Enough to Counter UCR Comeback

Next Game:

UC Irvine

12/31/2022 | 1:00 P.M.

Spectrum SportsNet

1230AM/101.1FM ESPN

Next Game

Full Schedule

Dec. 31 (Sat) / 1:00 P.M.

UC Irvine

History

Recap
Roster

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Coming off four straight non-conference losses to enter Big West competition, the Cal State Bakersfield men's basketball team was looking to get back on track against longtime rivals UC Riverside and start conference play with a definitive win. Through the first half, the game was well-swayed in Bakersfield's direction. However, Riverside were able to put the Roadrunners on their heels in the second half and simply outplayed Bakersfield to eventually take the game 71-59. CSUB will now look towards its first Big West home game against UC Irvine on Saturday for its first conference win and first overall win in four games.

Notables

Ugnius Jarusevicius, affectionately known as "UG" amongst his teammates, made his first career start for CSUB, showing head coach Rod Barnes' confidence in his improvements as an overall player but on the defensive side in particular, a stable of the typical Barnes-led team.
CSUB shored up its defense against one of the NCAA Division I's best scorers in Riverside's Zyon Pullin, holding him to a season-low 8 points. This also reverberated to the rest of Riverside's team during the first half, with the Highlanders shooting just over 29% from the field. During the second half, UCR regained its composure, shooting 56% enroute to a comeback win.
The `Runners had shooting accuracy issues early but quickly shifted to a defensive mindset as a vessel to produce offense. Through the game, 19 of CSUB's points came from turnovers, with most of those happening in the first half. Bakersfield was at its best when employing a full-court press and putting consistent pressure on Riverside's primary shooters.
The message that CSUB will most likely take from tonight's result is the need to finish with a complete performance, as the players and coach Barnes have repeatedly said they are working to put together a full 40-minute effort. That was prevalent tonight as once UCR regained the lead, CSUB was never quite able to get back into the swing of things.

Next on the Schedule

CSUB hosts UC Irvine at the Icardo Center in one of Bakersfield two nationally televised home games this season.
vs UC Irvine, Dec. 31, 1 p.m. (PT)
Full schedule available at GoRunners.com/MBB
CSUB Season Tickets and Single-Game Tickets available at GoRunners.com/Tickets

First Half

Both teams started off firing against each other, as true rivals should, with Kaleb Higgins getting the `Runners on the board scoring four of CSUB's first six points. Getting off to a scoring start would need to be a key for the `Runners, as Riverside boasts one of the best scorers in NCAA Division I right now with Zyon Pullin, and CSUB would want to counter his shooting ability with an early lead.
Midway through the first half, both teams struggled to get their offenses going, with the score standing at just 8-6 in favor of Riverside by the twelfth minute. With CSUB shooting just 23% at that point, coach Rod Barnes implemented the full-court press for his team, which caused Riverside to turnover and allow a small, quick run from the `Runners to put CSUB up 17-8 by the ninth minute.
After the quick CSUB's surge, the Highlanders took a timeout to regroup and came back with a few small runs of their own in an attempt to close the deficit but never retook the lead. Foul trouble from CSUB gave Riverside 12 free throw opportunities, which the Highlanders converted into 20 of their points during the first half.
The `Runners utilized their typically dominate defense to hold Riverside to just 29.6% shooting from the field. Through the half, CSUB also converted 13 points solely off forced turnovers, while putting together one of its best first half shooting efforts with 43.8% from the field.

Second Half

UC Riverside started off the second half with a better pace than it left with during the first half, continuing to close the deficit, but every time the Highlanders got close, the `Runners would shore up the defense and answer back with a stream of their own points.
CSUB found itself in foul trouble again early in the second half after switching to a man-to-man defense, tallying four personal fouls through the first few minutes. Riverside was leading off the boards through most of the game and continued that during the second half as well.
Through the remainder of the game, CSUB allowed Riverside into the bonus, as the Highlanders converted another 18 of their second-half points from the charity stripe.
The `Runners, continuing to be untypically outrebounded, allowed UC Riverside to take the lead on the back of a few fast break opportunities during a large second half run, the Highlander's first lead since quite early in the game.
The `Runners did their job of holding Riverside's leading scorer on the season, Zyon Pullin, to just 2-of-4 from the field for 8 points, but that left the door open for a few Highlanders, particularly Jamal Hartwell and Kyle Owens both off the bench, to put up double-digit points.
After giving up the lead midway through the second half, CSUB could never quite regain its footing, and eventually allowed UCR to simply pull too far ahead with not much time for the `Runners to recover.
With a few points in the final few minutes of the half, Kaleb Higgins was able to reset his career high single-game points total with 25 while still providing 8 assists.