Saturday, March 7th, 10:00 p.m. (et)

FACTS & STATS: Site: Mott Gymnasium (3,032) -- San Luis Obispo, California. Television: None. Home Record: UC Riverside 11-2, Cal Poly 3-11. Away Record: UC Riverside 5-10, Cal Poly 3-8. Neutral Record: UC Riverside 0-0, Cal Poly 1-1. Conference Record: UC Riverside 7-8, Cal Poly 3-12. Series Record: UC Riverside leads, 39-35.

GAME NOTES: The regular season concludes tonight for the UC Riverside Highlanders and the Cal Poly Mustangs, a pair of Big West Conference teams. UC Riverside has suffered two straight losses to fall to 16-12 overall and 7-8 in conference play. The Highlanders were most recently in action on Thursday when they dropped a 66-53 decision to UC Santa Barbara on the road. They are now 5-10 on the opposition's home court, not exactly reason for optimism heading into this evening's affair. Still, it has to be encouraging that Cal Poly is just 3-11 at home this season. The Mustangs, who are 7-20 overall, have lost their last three games and six of the last seven. On Thursday, the home crowd watched in disappointment as the club fell to Long Beach State by a 63-60 margin. UC Riverside owns a 39-35 series lead over Cal Poly, including a 91-57 romp over the Mustangs in the first meeting this season.

Kyle Austin has been the leading scorer for UC Riverside in four consecutive outings, and he is generating 17.0 ppg this season to go along with 6.3 rpg. Unfortunately, no other player on the roster is averaging double figures in scoring, and the Highlanders are generating a mere 60.1 ppg on 42.4 percent shooting from the field. The only reason that they are four games above the .500 mark overall is that they are limiting opponents to 60.4 ppg. In the 13- point loss to UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, Austin scored 14 points, while Javon Borum added 13 points. Unfortunately, the Highlanders shot 5-of-11 from the foul line and committed 16 costly turnovers.

There are four double-digit scorers in the lineup for Cal Poly, but none of those individuals are likely to warrant a double team tonight. Lorenzo Keeler is netting 12.7 ppg, but his 34 percent shooting from the field is far from impressive. Titus Shelton provides 12.3 ppg, and Shawn Lewis adds 11.3 ppg. Rounding out the group is Chaz Thomas with 11.2 ppg, but the Mustangs are connecting on only 40.7 percent of their field goal attempts. They did shoot 49 percent from the floor against Long Beach State on Thursday, but 16 turnovers and a 20-9 deficit in points from the foul line clearly hurt the cause. Cal Poly got 15 points from Shelton, but the team did not get a single point from its bench.

Go with the Mustangs tonight, as they will close out what has been a disappointing regular season with a much-needed win.

Predicted Outcome

Cal Poly 65, UC Riverside 63