UC Riverside senior Rickey Porter (Fountain Valley, CA/Mater Dei HS) garnered Big West Men's Basketball Player of the Week honors after scoring a career-high 40 points to lead the Highlanders past Pacific, which saw its 31-game winning streak against league opponents ended. UCR started off Big West play with a 2-1 effort after going winless through the non-conference portion of its schedule.
Porter, a 6-3 guard, averaged 19.7 points, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game for the week as the Highlanders sandwiched wins over UC Santa Barbara (81-78) and Pacific (83-71) around a loss to Cal Poly (54-66). He shot 50.0 (19 of 38) percent from the floor and 55.6 (10 of 18) percent from three-point territory, in addition to making 11 of 13 attempts at the charity stripe.
His 40 points is the second-highest single-game scoring total in UCR history and the third-highest in the history of the Spanos Center. He made 7 of 7 from three-point land and 13 of 19 shots overall against the Tigers while adding three steals.
Porter scored 11 points and added four assists in the win over the Gauchos, and had eight points with four assists and a pair of three-pointers in the setback to the Mustangs.