UC Irvine beats UC Davis, remains in Big West lead
The UC Irvine men’s basketball team gave up a double-digit second half lead to UC Davis on Saturday at home, but the Anteaters responded down the stretch to survive with a 78-76 victory and maintain a spot atop the Big West leaderboard.
DJ Davis closed the game out, making a stepback 3 and two big free throws to keep Irvine in front in the final minute. Davis and Dawson Baker led Irvine (19-8, 12-3 Big West) with 18 points apiece.
With the Anteaters up by one in the closing seconds, Davis missed a midrange shot, but Devin Tillis was in perfect position for the offensive rebound and drew a foul. Tillis made one of two foul shots, and then UC Davis (15-12, 8-7 Big West) threw up a desperation 3-point attempt from halfcourt at the buzzer that missed the rim.
“Tough, hard-fought win, which all conference games are going to be at this stage of the year,” Irvine coach Russell Turner said.
Irvine has won four straight since losing in overtime at Long Beach State on Feb. 4, and was coming off a big win at UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday to enter the day tied for first with the Gauchos in the conference.
Kane Milling took the last shot for UC Davis and not Elijah Pepper, who had 32 points and five 3-pointers for his fourthstraight game with at least 30 points. Pepper entered the game as the Big West’s scoring leader, averaging 21.7 points per game.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on him, so it was 30 tough points that he made,” Turner said.
Pepper was just 3 of 10 shooting at halftime for 11 points, but caught fire later with 21 second-half points.
Irvine had a 13-point lead early in the second half, but a 20-2 UC Davis run sparked by Pepper gave the Aggies a fivepoint lead with nine minutes left in regulation.
“He’s strong, physical,” Baker said of Pepper. “He’s very quick off the bounce. He can pull up from anywhere, so you’re always constantly having your hand up.”
Bent Leuchten, Irvine’s 7-foot center who scored a career-high 31 points against UC Davis in January, finished with 14 points and nine rebounds on Saturday. He had 12 second-half points, including a key layup plus the foul immediately after a corner 3 by Pepper capped off the run.
That basket seemed to settle the game down for Irvine, which regained the lead shortly afterwards with five straight points by Baker.
Leuchten also blitzed the Aggies for seven points and an assist in the first three minutes of the second half. Leuchten made a 3, a layup, dished to Pierre Cockrell II for an easy basket and blocked a shot. Cockrell then returned the favor on the ensuing possession to Leuchten to give Irvine a 48-35 lead.
Cockrell joined Leuchten, Davis and Baker in double-digits with 10 points, and Tillis added nine. Twelve players saw the court in the first half alone for the Anteaters.
“It’s hard for other teams to have so much to focus on as they’re defending us,” Baker said. “We have a lot of threats that we can go to and take advantage of, depending on the team and what matchups we like, and that’s big for us. It’s easy to play that way.”
The Anteaters got off to a 10-2 start, capped off by a follow dunk by Akiva McBirney-Griffin. The Aggies, with two 3-pointers by Pepper, responded to tie the game at 12-12.
Irvine led by as much as 14 in the first half, and took an eight-point lead into halftime.
Irvine wraps up a stretch of three games in six days at Cal Poly on Monday.
Turner believes that his team, which recently saw Leuchten return to the starting lineup after missing eight games with a meniscus tear, is both united and healthy with five games left before the Big West tournament.
“I feel good coming through this game, and looking forward to everything that’s out there for us,” Turner said. “I know we’ve got to be at our best when we get to Henderson. That’s the nature of this league, and we’re going to have to rise to that challenge.”