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Men’s Basketball: UCI drops third straight

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LONG BEACH — UC Irvine’s suddenly tumultuous bid for a third Big West Conference regular-season men’s basketball title in the last four seasons hit a Pyramid in the road on Saturday night.

Not even the return of senior guard Luke Nelson could break the Anteaters’ standings-toppling slump, that extended to three straight losses in a 72-63 setback to host Long Beach State in front of 4,213 at the Walter Pyramid.

The Anteaters, who two weeks ago had reeled off eight straight wins, including six to open conference play — and were reveling in the program’s longest win streak since 2006 — fell out of first place for the second time in a week.

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UCI, now 13-12, 6-3 in conference, trails UC Davis (14-9, 6-2) and is one-half game ahead of third-place Cal State Northridge, which lost to Hawaii on Saturday.

Nelson, who missed 18 of the first 24 games, including the previous three with a balky hamstring, had 17 points, including 13 in the second half, in 23 minutes.

Nelson, a first-team all-conference performer as a junior, was six for 15 from the field, and just one for six from three-point range.

His shooting struggles were contagious with senior backcourt mate Jaron Martin, who was two for 11 from the field and had six points in 31 minutes.

Ioannis Dimakopoulos, a 7-foot-2 senior center who was the Big West Player of the Week on the heels of the tail end of the aforementioned winning streak, had four points and one rebound to personify what Coach Russell Turner said was a lack of inside presence.

“[The 49ers (10-15, 5-4)] were the more physical team tonight,” Turner said. “And that has been the case for three games in a row now. I have to figure out how to get back the edge that we were playing with. We had built some momentum, but we have lost a little bit of that spark, that toughness, or something. I feel like our team has gone soft.”

UCI missed 15 of its first 18 field-goal attempts, but rallied with a 13-3 surge to end the first half to trim the deficit to 32-28.

UCI pulled even at 32-32 and 34-34 and eventually took its first lead when Nelson drained a three-pointer for a 52-51 edge with 6:43 left in the game. But the ‘Eaters’ only lead lasted just 49 seconds, as Long Beach junior Evan Payne connected from three-point range to put the hosts ahead for good.

Payne, who had 14 of his game-high 19 points after halftime, was two for two from threedom after intermission.

Long Beach State freshman Loren Jackson also made both of his three-point tries in the second half to help the 49ers net 11 of 22 field-goal attempts on its way to shooting 44.7% for the game. Jackson has 11 of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes.

UCI, which through Thursday ranked No. 10 in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (.385), wasn’t the best defense on the floor Saturday.

“Give credit to Long Beach,” Turner said. “I thought they played a high-level game and were a big part of the reason why we didn’t make shots [23 for 63 for 36.5%, including six for 21 beyond the arc (28.6%)]. They gave up 108 points in their last outing, so they were a lot better against us tonight than they have been at times.

“I was pleased with the way we stayed in it,” Turner said. “We fought our way back in the game and I thought this game would go down to the wire. It could have, if not for the clutch three-point shooting of Long Beach. They made a bunch of clutch threes in the second half that were mostly contested.”

Junior Jonathan Galloway had nine points and a team-best eight rebounds to help UCI post a 40-33 advantage on the glass.

Brandon Smith made two of his three three-point tries for nine points, while freshmen Max Hazzard (eight points) and Tommy Rutherford (six points and five rebounds) contributed off the bench for UCI.

UCI plays host to UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Big West Conference

Long Beach St. 73, UC Irvine 63

UCI – Galloway 9, Smith 9, Dimakopoulos 4, Nelson 17, Martin 6, Hazzard 8, Rutherford 6, Edgar Jr. 2, Eyassu 2.

3-pt. goals – Martin 2, Smith 2, Nelson 1, Hazzard 1.

Fouled out – Martin.

Technicals – None.

LBSU – Prince 9, Yussuf 4, Payne 19, Jackson 15, Bibbins 14, Riggins 8, Griffin 3.

3-pt. goals – Payne 2, Jackson 2, Griffin 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

Halftime – 32-28, LBSU.

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