The UC Irvine Men’s Basketball team (11-7, 6-3) defeated the UC Riverside Highlanders (12-8, 5-4), 66-56, at the Bren Events Center on Thursday, Feb. 10.
UCI redshirt senior forward Collin Welp led with 15 points, 13 rebounds and two assists. Redshirt junior forward JC Butler added 13 points, six rebounds and two assists for the Anteaters.
UCI got off to a slow start offensively, getting outscored 4-0 in the first three minutes. Butler ended the offensive spell with a quick bucket, cutting the lead to two. Butler added another bucket that was followed by a layup by redshirt sophomore center Emmanuel Tshimanga. This cut the deficit down to one point.
A quick 7-0 run by the Highlanders out of a media timeout had UCI on their heels; however, the Anteaters retaliated, cutting the lead to 25-23 heading into the second half.
Welp was on fire at the start of the second half. He connected on an isolation jumper and a three-pointer off an assist by Butler, giving UCI their first lead of the night with 28-25. Butler added a jumper off of Welp to finish off a 7-0 Anteater run.
However, Riverside answered with a 9-0 run of their own to take a 34-30 lead four minutes into the half. Both teams continued to trade baskets until UCI found themselves ahead 46-38 after a 10-2 run that was capped by a three-pointer made by sophomore guard DJ Davis.
UCI’s run continued as Welp made another jumper assisted by sophomore guard Dawson Baker, who added a three off a pass from Welp. This gave UCI a 51-40 lead with just under five minutes left.
Junior forward Austin Johnson added a big alley-oop dunk from Baker that sent the Bren into a frenzy, sealing the win 66-56 for the ‘Eaters.
UCI head coach Russell Turner praised his team’s performance in the big conference victory.
“That’s some of the best ball we’ve played [all year] in the second half of this one,” Turner said. “We needed to play it then. I don’t think we looked as good the first half on offense … but that was a really fine defensive performance all the way around. I thought we were really disciplined, we were really aggressive, appropriately, we contested shots.”
UCI picked up their fifth straight win and improved to 11-7 overall and 7-1 at home. The ‘Eaters will be back in action in a game vs UC San Diego on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. The game can be streamed on ESPN+ and the live stats can be accessed online.
James Huston is a Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at hustonj@uci.edu.
