OCEANSIDE, Calif. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team suffered a tough loss in the first of two games on its California road trip, falling to Cal State San Marcos, 82-55. The loss drops the Eagles to 4-3 on the year, while the Cougars evened their overall record at 3-3.

The Eagles struggled to get their offense going in the first half, connecting on just two of their first nine shot attempts. On the other side of the ball, the Cougars connected on their first three attempts to take a 7-2 lead. That advantage quickly grew to eight points (11-3) and while the Eagles were able to narrow the gap to six (13-7) with 13:09 left in the first half, the Cougars, who shot 65.4 percent from the field in the first frame, got a lift from Tim Steed's five first-half threes and led 44-26 at the half.

CSUSM kept the momentum going into the second half and continued to build on the lead. The Eagles, who shot 27 percent (8-29) in the first half, improved that number to 30 percent (10-33) in the second, but it wasn't enough to catch the Cougars who closed out the game shooting 58.8 (30-51) percent from the field and 66.7 (6-9) percent from beyond the arc to take the win.

Ray Graham accounted for 42 percent of the Eagles' scoring tallying a game-high 23 points to go with eight rebounds, which was also the best individual rebounding performance of the night. Aaron Chamberlain and Steed were the leading scorers for the Cougars, totaling 18 points apiece.

The Eagles will close out their California trip on Friday when they take on NAIA Division I No. 8 Azusa Pacific. Tip-off is schedule for 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.