Dalph Panopio and Cal State Bakersfield suffered a 69-79 loss to Mike Magpayo’s UC Riverside in the 2021–22 Big West regular season, Friday (Manila time) at SRC Arena in Riverside, California.
The Highlanders completed a season sweep of the Roadrunners, also taking a 65-64 win last January 16.
Panopio was a starter in the contest, finishing the game with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting with four rebounds and three assists.
It was a tough loss for Panopio’s side as it was their eighth straight loss, falling to 1-9 in conference play and 6-13 overall.
The Highlanders pulled ahead 55-40 early in the second half for its biggest lead of the game, but Bakersfield would respond with a 7-0 run to cut its deficit to single digits. The `Runners danced around a 10-point deficit for much of the second half with UCR fending off CSUB’s advances as the home team held on for the 10-point victory.
UCR went up to 13-9 with the win, 6-4 in conference play.
Dominick Pickett and Wil Tattersall combined for 41 points on 13-of-19 shooting and 9 of 11 from downtown in the win. Pickett came one point shy of tying his career-high of 22.
Justin McCall, meanwhile, tallied a season-high 25 points to go with nine rebounds against UCR.
CSUB is set to square off against UC Davis on Sunday.
