By james art The UC Irvine men’s basketball team (15-2, 5-0) defeated the RV UC San Diego Tritons (14-3, 4-1) 60-52 in a nationally televised Big West game on Jan. 11 at LionTree Arena in front of a sellout crowd .
That game featured the 39th-ranked Tritons in the latest Coaches Poll and the 50th-ranked Anteaters in the NCAA NET rankings. Both teams headed into the game not only aiming to atop the Big West standings, but hoping to pave the way for a potential at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in March.
UC San Diego entered the game riding the nation’s longest winning streak at 12 games, including a win over No. 25 Utah State. UC Irvine, on the other hand, was coming off a 77-67 win over California State University, Northridge on Jan. 9, a team ranked No. 103 in the NET rankings.
The Anteaters opened the game with a 3-0 lead on a three-pointer by graduate guard Justin Hohn. UC San Diego quickly took its first lead, 5-3, on a triple by junior guard Chris Howell. On the next possession, Irvine junior forward Kyle Evans answered with a layup to tie the game at 5.
A minute later, the Tritons took the lead again as senior guard/forward Aniwaniva Tait-Jones ran on a fast break and dunked the ball to give UC San Diego a 7-5 lead.
As the first half progressed, the Tritons held onto the lead for about nine minutes, at one point extending it to six points. In the eighth minute, Irvine senior center Bent Leuchten hit a jumper to give the Anteaters their first lead of the game, 21-20.
Tritons graduate forward Maximo Milovic quickly responded with a layup to regain the lead, 22-21. Hohn then started an 8-0 run for the Anteaters with a three-pointer that gave the Eaters the lead and started to suck some life out of the electric UC San Diego crowd.
Despite being down by eight points twice, the Tritons were able to come back to trail 34-32 at halftime.
Seven minutes into the second half, San Diego took its first lead on a three-pointer by Howell. After the score, the Tritons extended their lead with a 6-0 run to go up 44-38.
At 9:30, Louchten completed a three-point play. He hit a layup that was fouled by Triton junior forward Nordin Kapich and converted on a free throw attempt to tie the game at 46. The next play on the defensive end, Leuchten blocked a Tait-Jones layup to keep the game tied.
A minute later, Leuchten scored a layup to give the Anteaters a 48-46 lead. That layup was part of a 7-0 run by the Anteaters that ultimately sealed the game. The Anteaters later held a 10-point lead, their largest, with 11 seconds remaining. The game ended with a final score of 60-52.
Tate-Jones had a strong game for Triton with 17 points, three rebounds, three assists and one block. For the Anteaters, Leuchten was a force inside, recording a double-double with 23 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and one assist. He accounted for about 38 percent of his team’s total points and recorded his second consecutive double-double.
UC Irvine remains the only undefeated team in Big West play with five wins, one game ahead of UC San Diego for first place atop the standings.
The more important takeaway is that the Anteaters won their first Quad 1 game of the season, a win that boosted their NET ranking to 43rd in the country. The Anteaters are currently one spot behind RV Vanderbilt of the Southeastern Conference in the NET standings. Vanderbilt is projected to receive one of the final four at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. The Eaters are ranked one spot above the Big Ten’s Iowa, which is currently projected to be the eighth team out of the tournament.
If UC Irvine doesn’t win the Big West Championship, they will have to rely on an at-large bid to qualify for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. A win over the Tritons leaves the Anteaters on the brink of getting a top-25 poll vote or not and getting an at-large bid.
UC Irvine will head north to the Bren Events Center to take on undefeated Cal State University Fullerton on January 16th.
Jack Fedor is a sports editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Jahim Conley