UC Irvine gets by UCSB in a record scoring fest

The marque said it was a game between UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara, but it turned out to be a magnificent game by UC Sharpshooters.

UC Irvine took a record 92-90 win over UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Tournament quarterfinals, the fourth-highest points total in a tournament game and the first time two teams have both topped 90 points.

UC Santa Barbara set a school and tournament record with 18 3-pointers, but the Anteaters hit 10 of 17 shots from the 3-point line and then controlled the pace in the fourth quarter with two early 3-pointers and a series of drives to the basket by Haleigh Talbert and Chloe Webb.

The Gauchos shot 49 percent and the Anteaters 55 percent. There were 19 lead changes in the game. UC Santa Barbara led by 12 at one point in the first half; the most UC Irvine led by at any time was six points.

Adding a dimension to the Anteaters’ win, they were without Big West Freshman of the Year Kayla Williams, who was held out with a sore ankle. UC Irvine advanced to the semifinals Saturday against the winner of Wednesday’s late game between Long Beach State or Cal Poly.

“If you had told me Santa Barbara hit 18 3-pointers and we won, I would have said that was not correct,” UC Irvine head coach Tamara Inoue said. “I’m really proud of the fight we had. There were a lot of times when we could have let up. Threes are like dunks in the women’s game.

“What I love about this team is that we can go inside or outside. We had those two 3-pointers and points).

Season records in the year of the pandemic might be the most worthless stats of all. UC Santa Barbara was 7-13 on the season, but started it with two players injured, Mole and Anderson, and closed the season with a 5-1 streak.

“We’ve been there before,” Inoue said. “They were playing with house money. There’s a little bit of luck in winning conference tournament games.”

Talbert, a senior, said the Anteaters were playing with Williams (14.8 points, 4.5 assists per minute) in mind, since the decision to hold her out was a tough decision based on her chances of playing the rest of the tournament.

“It was hard to hear that your best player was out,” Talbert said. “She talked to us about it and told us we were a great team without her. That gave us confidence. We all went out there knowing the team was relying on us.”

The Titans, coming off an emotional first-round win in the Big West Tournament on Tuesday, squared off with topseeded UC Davis, which came in a clear favorite the last five Big West regularseason titles in hand.

After falling behind by 16 at halftime, ninthseeded Fullerton chipped away at the Aggies’ lead. Despite shooting 30.6 percent overall and missing 25 of 29 3-point attempts, the Titans (4-18) got within four points with 3:55 left. UC Davis (11-2) scored its last field goal with 5:44 left but made 12 of 16 freethrow attempts down the stretch to close out the win.

Fullerton’s Joy Krupa scored a career-high 25 points on 11-for-22 shooting to go with a career-high 15 rebounds.