RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The University of Denver men's basketball team fell to UC Riverside on Saturday, 73-49 in the SRC Arena. The loss caused the Pioneers to drop to 2-3 on the year, while the Highlanders improved to 4-2.

Roscoe Eastmond, coming off the bench, scored a season-high 11 points for DU. The Marietta, Ga. native grabbed a season-best four rebounds in the loss.

Alperen Kurnaz added a career-best 10 points, which included going 2-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Callum McRae led the way for UCR, scoring a game-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds.

DU's 33.3 percent shooting from the field was a new season low.

Denver got a solid start to the afternoon, coming out aggressive to force a 7-7 tie by the first media timeout. Defense was the key the in early minutes, with the Pioneers limiting UC Riverside to 33.3 percent shooting to start the game.

A 6-0 run out of the media by the Highlanders pushed it to a two-possession game that held for the next few minutes at 18-12. Neither team was able to generate much offense the five-minute stretch.

The two teams kept it at a two-possession game for the majority of the half before a late run from UCR gave them its first-double digit lead of the afternoon at 31-21 with 1:37 left in the first half.

UC Riverside held on to the 10-point lead going into the half, up 33-23.

Kurnaz was a bright spot in the first 20 minutes of action, scoring a season-best eight points.

Pioneers got off to a sluggish shooting start in the second half, going 1-for-5 as the Highlanders' lead built to 12 after a layup from George Willborn III.

A quick run from the Crimson and Gold cut the UCR lead to seven at 40-33 on a jumper from Eastmond, giving him eight points on the day.

UC Riverside made its move after that, going on a 6-0 run to make it 46-33, forcing Denver to take a timeout.

It was all Highlanders from there, going on the get the victory, remaining unbeaten at home.

UP NEXT:
Denver continues its four-game road trip with a trip to Santa Clara for the Cable Car Classic during the Thanksgiving break. The Pioneers will matchup with the host Broncos on Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 3 pm MT.

TICKETS:
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