Men’s Basketball Goes Undefeated in “We Play Hard” Tournament

The Tigers faced a nine-point deficit after the opening half of action against winless the LA Trade Tech College on Saturday afternoon. Despite the early woes, the Tigers remained poised, worked towards a lead in the middle of the second half, and kept pushing resulting in a 74-61 victory.

Freshman Reggie Ward handed the Tigers the lead with a layup with under nine minutes reaming in in the game while almost completing an and-one play. Nevertheless, he worked his way to the line on the following possession and hit two free throws to extend the lead.

Both teams swapped three pointers with freshman Tomi Adesiji hitting from downtown to keep the distance. From then on, Riverside closed out the game on a 16-4 run that featured six points from sophomore point guard Cortland Moffatt. Ward hammered home a dunk, assisted by freshman Raymond Hawkins, capped by a pair of free throws from sophomore Jalen Monroe to seal the deal.

Freshman Darius McCalin finished with a game-high 21 points on a 7-for-13 night shooting. He hit three triples as well.

Moffatt followed with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Ward and Hawkins combined for 21 points. Ward got to the line 10 times and hit seven, while Hawkins had a pair of threes to highlight his night.

As a team, Riverside shot 46.2 percent from the floor, which included a 41.7 mark from distance. Both teams crashed the boards well, but Riverside outscored LA Trade Tech in the paint by eight points.