Men’s Basketball: ‘Eaters falter at UCR
RIVERSIDE — UC Irvine athletics recently signed another shoe deal with Adidas. But the company that provides protective medical boots might be generating nearly as much exposure when it comes to outfitting the Anteaters’ men’s basketball team.
UCI, for which starters Mamadou Ndiaye and Alex Young were already sidelined by foot ailments, lost senior starter John Ryan to a foot injury early in the first half of Saturday’s Big West Conference road game against UC Riverside.
The Highlanders took full advantage by posting a 70-63 victory that could prove to be a fatal misstep to the title hopes of the defending regular-season Big West champions.
The setback, the first in five conference road games for UCI (14-10, 7-3 in conference), left the Anteaters two games behind first-place UC Davis with six regular-season conference games left.
The loss ended a five-game UCI win streak against the Highlanders (12-13, 5-6) and left ‘Eaters Coach Russell Turner with a pain that no orthopedist could assess.
“I’m very disappointed in our performance.” Turner said after his team shot 34.6% from the field and committed nine of its 16 turnovers in the second half. “We allowed that to happen as a team. There is no one individual who, in my mind, is more or less responsible than all of us. As a team, we just let this one get away from us. We weren’t good enough and we weren’t tough enough. And that couldn’t disappoint me more.”
Aaron Wright made a three-pointer at the first-half buzzer, then opened the second half with another long-distance strike to give UCI a 37-32 advantage.
Another three-pointer by sophomore reserve Jaron Martin, gave UCI its final lead, 46-45, with 12:24 left.
Over the next eight-plus minutes, the Highlanders produced a 15-6 run that gave them a lead that never dipped below four.
UC Riverside, which had two wins in regulation in its previous 12 games, turned up its defensive intensity and relied on its one-two scoring punch of Taylor Johns and Jaylen Bland to outduel the ‘Eaters.
UCI produced eight of its first 10 points by pounding the ball inside to senior Will Davis and Ryan and seize a 10-4 lead. But Ryan exited for good after having netted two points and one rebound in six minutes, and Davis had just three points the rest of the way.
UCI’s inside rotation of Davis, Ryan, 7-foot-2 sophomore Ioannis Dimakopoulos and Mike Best combined for 21 points and eight rebounds and collectively converted eight of its 21 field-goal attempts.
Both Johns, who was 10 for 20 from the field and added 10 rebounds, and Bland, who made three three-pointers and was 10 for 12 from the foul line, both had 21 points to pace the hosts.
Best, a 6-10 junior reserve, was productive with eight points and five rebounds in 14 minutes. And Martin collected 13 of his team-best 15 points after halftime and made three of four shots from three-point range in the final 20 minutes, to help keep UCI within striking distance.
But the five UCI starters combined for a mere 24 points and, for the first time all season, none notched double-figures.
Davis was one for seven from the field after netting his first three attempts, and sophomore guard Luke Nelson added to the shooting woes with a three-for-12 performance that included four misses without a make from threedom.
Nelson also accumulated a season-worst seven turnovers.
UCI lost the rebounding battle, 41-28, matching its most lopsided deficit of the season. Its rebound total matched the second-worst of the campaign, better only than a 37-24 deficit in a loss at New Mexico State.
“The No. 1 key for us was defensive energy and activity,” UC Riverside Coach Dennis Cutts said. “[UC Irvine] is a very good basketball team and we turned them over 16 times and held them to 34% in the second half. Those are impressive numbers against that quality team.”
UCI will attempt to bounce back with conference home games against Hawaii (Thursday at 7:30 p.m.) and Cal State Northridge (Saturday at 7).
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Big West Conference
UC Riverside 70, UC Irvine 63
UCI – Davis 9, Ryan 2, Wright 9, Nelson 8, Souza 3, Martin 15, Best 8, Dunning 7, Dimakopoulos 2.
3-pt. goals – Martin 3, Wright 3, Souza 1, Dunning 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
UCR – Johns 21, Thornton 7, Larsson 4, Bland 21, Gruniger 9, Quick 6, Standifer 2.
3-pt. goals – Bland 3, Thornton 1, Gruniger 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
Halftime – 34-32, UCI.