November 19, 2015
Highlanders 77 – Broncos 63
The UC Riverside men’s basketball moved to 2-0 for the first time in their division one history and in order to understand the importance of this statistic, you must know who to credit this success to.
Start by taking a look at the bench. In this past Thursday’s game against Santa Clara, forward Primitivo Gomez came in as a sub and gave the Highlanders a much needed boost on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Such a contribution was sorely needed, especially with team leader and Big West first team all-conference player Taylor Johns sitting out for a violation of team rules.
Gomez led the Highlanders’ bench with seven points and five rebounds, while going 4-6 from the free throw line. Elsewhere, the Highlanders were aided by the effort of guard Gentrey Thomas who had four points and was a key component to the most exciting play of the night: an alley-oop from Thomas to fellow newcomer, Secean Johnson.
And speaking of Johnson, the junior college transfer could pay off huge this season as his skillset provides this team with a triple threat. The triple threat I am alluding to of course includes stars Johns and Jaylen Bland, but the third is undoubtedly Johnson, whose versatility on both ends is uncanny. Johnson tied Bland for the team-high in scoring Thursday night with 20 points, but he also particularly excelled in areas that won’t show up on the box score.
Johnson’s defense fueled the Highlanders all night, and his ability to put pressure on the ball-handler is something the Highlanders haven’t had from a new starter in quite a while. Bland was by far the most active player on the night, knocking down 55 percent of his threes en route to those 20 points, while also grabbing four rebounds and dishing out four assists.
When talking of the senior Bland it is important to note that the Highlanders are a much more mature team this year than the last. Sophomore big men Alex Larsson and Robert Boezeman not only add much-needed height to the frontcourt, but also offer a wealth of knowledge and experience to a team that has a total of 10 newcomers on the roster.
Larsson had six points against Santa Clara, while grabbing three rebounds and adding two blocks to his totals. What we also saw from Larsson was a much-improved hook shot from a year ago, something that the Highlanders will be able to depend on in the halfcourt come conference play. As for Boezeman, with the welcomed addition of 7’0” freshman center Menno Dykstra, he is now able to stretch his game farther out and it showed Thursday as Boezeman came out of the gate hitting his first two three pointers and finished 4-6 from beyond the arc on the night.
In the end, the Highlanders’ efforts allowed them to top the Broncos, 77-63.
Leading the way for the Santa Clara was junior forward Nate Kratch with 22 points and fellow teammate Jared Brownridge who added 18 points. Together, the two combined to go 14 for 21 from the field, while the rest of the Broncos struggled at a combined nine for 33 from the floor.
As for UCR’s senior leader, Johns, he once again sat out of this past Saturday’s game against University of San Francisco. The Highlanders fell in that one, 58-57, and now stand at 2-1 on the young and early season.
