UC Riverside 71, UC Santa Cruz 58

Sunday December 15, 2002

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) Nate Carter had 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds as UC Riverside beat UC Santa Cruz 71-58 Saturday night.

The Highlanders (1-2) had a sloppy first half, giving up 11 turnovers, but were never in serious jeopardy of losing a lead they held all but once in the game.

The closest the Banana Slugs (0-6) got was 15-13 with 9:01 left in the first half. They trailed by 12 at halftime.

In the second half, Santa Cruz managed to get the deficit down to six points, 49-43, following consecutive baskets by Brian Maxwell and Nick Vita, but the Highlanders went on a 13-2 run over the next five minutes, including eight points by Mark Miller, to take control of the game.

Ted Bell had 16 points for Riverside and Miller added 13.

UC Santa Cruz was led by Vita with 16 points and Michael Crosby with 14.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)