49ers Fall To UC Riverside, 73-61
Louis Darby Finishes With 20 Points
January 17, 2004 LONG BEACH, CA-- The Long Beach State men's basketball team (4-11, 2-4 Big West) dropped its fourth consecutive conference game, falling to UC Riverside (6-7, 3-2 Big West) 73-61 on Saturday night. Louis Darby led The Beach with 20 points, as the 49ers shot just .364 (20-55) from the field. Nate Carter led the Highlanders with 15 points and a career-high tying 13 rebounds.
Long Beach closed to within 46-41 after a three-pointer by Jibril Hodges with 12:46 left to play, but Riverside would pull away on an 11-3 run to push their lead to 57-47 with 7:00 minutes to play. The Beach again tried to get back into the contest, this time within 57-50 after two made free throws by Darby, but the Highlanders would use an 8-2 run to put the game out of reach for the 49ers.
Darby led The Beach with 20 points while Marcel Jackson picked up a career-high tying 10 rebounds and also added eight points. Hodges finished with nine points and three assists. LBSU had just 14 turnovers in the game, but UCR took better care of the ball committing just seven turnovers while shooting .455 (25-55) from the field. The 49ers out-rebounded UCR 41-to-29 in the loss.
UCR had three players in double-digits. After Carter's 15 points , Rickey Porter added 14 and Vili Morton would pick up 10. UCR was 8-22 from 3-point range as Porter was 4-7 from outside the arc.
UC Riverside went into the halftime break up 32-27, led by Vili Morton's 10 first-half points. The 49ers committed eight turnovers, while the Highlanders only had four, but The Beach outrebounded UCR 20-to-15. LBSU shot 41%, while Riverside shot 43%.
The 49ers will next take on UC Irvine on Saturday, January 24 at 7:35 p.m. in The Pyramid.
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