Reporter

A rally by the CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team came up short as the Roadrunners fell to No. 10 Arizona 76-68 in a nationally-televised matchup on Tuesday, Nov. 15 in Tucson, Arizona.

The game was televised nationally on the Pac-12 Network.

A 24-5 outburst in the first half by the Wildcats gave them a 44-26 lead heading into halftime, and Arizona stretched that lead to 21 early in the second half. 

But CSUB kept fighting and cut into that lead.

With 15:24 left in the game, the Roadrunners scored 17 unanswered points to bring the score to 53-49 with just over nine minutes remaining.

A flagrant foul by freshman forward Taze Moore sparked the Wildcats to yet another run to put them up by double-digits.

The Roadrunners worked to get the lead to single digits, again.  However, the team ran out of time.

“We showed a lot of character tonight, that’s something that doesn’t surprise me,” said coach Rod Barnes to gorunners.com. “Unfortunately, we had a stretch there when we didn’t play well.”

CSUB led 10-3 to start the game before a 17-2 run by Arizona put them ahead 20-12 and another run gave the Wildcats the double-digit lead heading into halftime.

The Roadrunners (1-1) were led by redshirt-senior forward Jaylin Airington who poured in 31 points on 10 of 25 shooting from the floor. It was the second highest scoring output by a Roadrunner since the school moved to Division I when Issiah Grayson scored 33 points in 2014.

After shooting only 36.7 percent in the first half, CSUB recovered to shoot 50 percent from the floor in the second half.

Arizona got to the free throw line 35 times while making 27. CSUB only went 7 of 11 from the stripe on the evening.

Senior guard Dedrick Basile scored 14 points.

Junior forward James Suber pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.

The Roadrunners return home for their next game versus the UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Icardo Center.