IRVINE — The UC Irvine men’s basketball team managed to claw out of a massive hole on Saturday night against visiting UC San Diego, but the Anteaters couldn’t hold on to a late lead in a 71-69 loss at the Bren Events Center.
After trailing by as much as 17 points in the first half of the Big West Conference matchup, UCI twice briefly took the lead in the second half, but the Tritons wouldn’t let the hosts build on their momentum.
“I want to give [UC] San Diego credit,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “They came in here and just thoroughly outplayed us in the hustle points and the effort points and the desire plays. They just were quicker to loose balls, quicker to rebounds. They were hungrier than we were and that’s been an issue for this team, repeatedly.”
The loss dropped the Anteaters to 18-10 overall and 11-5 in the Big West, tied for first place with Hawaii (19-7, 11-5) and Cal State Northridge (18-10, 11-5), which won its seventh straight game on Saturday and hosts UCI on Thursday night.
The top two finishers in the regular season get a double-bye into the semifinals of next month’s eight-team Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nevada.
UCI took its final lead at 66-65 on a 3-pointer by Jurian Dixon in front of his own bench with 2:05 left.
Hudson Mayes scored inside with 1:47 remaining to move the Tritons back in front. The Anteaters missed two opportunities to retake the lead before Mayes scored on a spin move in close with 13 seconds left for a three-point advantage.
Dixon missed a potential tying 3-pointer with five seconds remaining before hitting a long one at the buzzer for the final two-point margin.
“They scored their last several baskets at the rim. That’s disappointing to me,” Turner said. “That’s what we’re best at, is protecting the rim. We didn’t do that when it mattered the most.”
Dixon scored 22 points to lead UCI. Henry scored 15 off the bench and Kyle Evans finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots for his fourth straight double-double.
Mayes had 17 points and eight rebounds, Alex Chaikin scored 15 and Tom Beattie added 11 points for UCSD (19-9, 9-7), which lost to UCI, 61-59, in their first meeting on Jan. 24 in San Diego.
The Anteaters got off to a slow start offensively for the second straight game and fell behind by 17 points in the first half before cutting the deficit to seven at halftime.
The Tritons sank five of their first seven 3-point attempts to take a 20-8 lead with 11:17 left in the first half.
After scoring just 12 points through the first 12 minutes in a 69-58 win at Long Beach State on Thursday, the Anteaters were still in single digits at the midway point of the first half against UCSD.
Bol Dengdit sank his second 3-pointer of the opening half to extend the lead to 32-15 with 4:53 remaining, but the Anteaters finally found their rhythm and went on a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 32-25 with 2:44 left in the half.
Evans hit double figures when he put back his own miss with 51 seconds remaining to cut the deficit back to seven and that score remained at halftime.
After starting 4 for 17 from the floor, the Anteaters ended up shooting 12 for 32 in the first half (37.5%).
The Anteaters started the second half with an 8-2 run, getting within one at 38-37 on a pull-up jumper by Dixon with 15:49 remaining.
UCI took its first lead since the opening minute of the game when Nes Emeneke blocked a shot by 7-footer Dimitrije Vukicevic, leading to a 3-pointer in transition by Henry for a 41-40 lead with 14:40 left in the game, but UCSD scored on back-to-back fast breaks and the Anteaters were back to chasing the lead again.
“We’ve lost four games at home this year,” Turner said. “That’s unusual and I’m disappointed we weren’t able to perform well enough once we got a lead, and put some pressure on them in the second half.”
UP NEXT
UC Irvine at Cal State Northridge, Thursday, 7 p.m.
BIG WEST STANDINGS
Through Saturday, Feb. 21
Team – Overall, Big West
Hawaii – 19-7, 11-5
UC Irvine – 18-10, 11-5
Cal State Northridge – 18-10, 11-5
UC Santa Barbara – 17-11, 10-7
UC Davis – 17-11, 10-7
Cal State Fullerton – 15-14, 10-7
UC San Diego – 19-9, 9-7
Cal Poly (SLO) – 12-16, 8-8
Long Beach State – 8-20, 4-12
UC Riverside – 9-20, 4-13
Cal State Bakersfield – 8-20, 2-14
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