Men’s Basketball: ‘Eaters surge past UCSB

SANTA BARBARA — For the second year in a row, an exclamation point at the end of a period helped the the UC Irvine men’s basketball team top host UC Santa Barbara.

Last season, UCI scored the final 17 points of the game to prevail. On Thursday, the Anteaters had an 11-0 surge to end the first half to take control on their way to a 66-62 Big West Conference triumph.

The Anteaters extended the late first-half surge into a 21-2 run that created a 42-28 cushion just more than three minutes into the second half. UCI upped the advantage to 45-30 with 14:59 left, then held off a valiant run by the Gauchos (2-12, 0-2 in conference).

UCSB, which is playing without three key players due to academics and injuries, pulled within 64-62 with 1:33 left.

But UCI got two offensive rebounds on the subsequent possession that culminated in 7-foot-2 senior Ioannis Dimakopoulos converting both ends of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity to finalize the scoring with 18 seconds left.

UCSB junior leading scorer Gabe Vincent, who had 11 of his game-high 15 points after intermission, was forced to take an off-balance three-point attempt with two defenders applying pressure that missed and the rebound went out of bounds to UCI with five seconds left.

UCI senior Luke Nelson netted three three-pointers to score the final 11 points of the first half. He finished with 14 points, to go with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Senior Jaron Martin scored all 14 of his points after halftime, including draining four of six three-point tries after the break. Martin had a team-best six assists to go with six rebounds.

It was the fifth straight victory for UCI (10-9, 3-0), which remained in a tie for first place with Cal State Northridge. UC Davis could also have also joined the frontrunners, had they won at UC Riverside late Thursday.

“Luke is one of the best players in the conference, for sure, and there was a big flash of that [during the late first-half flurry],” UCI Coach Russell Turner said. “That was right after I’d taken him out and got on him. He’s working his way back into competitive mode [after missing the first 15 games with a hamstring injury] and what he’s been through is not easy. But he’s a winner and our team has won a lot of games since he has been here. Tonight was another one that he was a huge part of.”

Turner also chastised Martin during a first half, in which he missed all three of his field-goal tries.

“Jaron was struggling offensively in the first half and he missed some open shots,” Turner said. “He did move the ball well. We know that teams are going to focus a lot of their energy on Jaron and Luke, and I thought that would mean our big guys would get a lot of easy baskets in this game, which we weren’t really able to get, other than Tommy Rutherford [eight points on four-for-seven shooting], who got some in a key stretch.

“I didn’t think Ioannis had his best game on the interior, although he finished really strong. He got a big basket at the rim late in the second half [with 7:46 left] and had those two free-throws.”

Sophomore Jonathan Galloway had a team-best seven rebounds to go with his two points, while Rutherford led seven reserves who all scored to help UCI post a 26-15 advantage in bench scoring.

Freshmen Evan Leonard and Eyassu Worku, as well as sophomore Spencer Rivers, combined to make three of six three-point attempts, while Rivers had three assists, all to Nelson during the late first-half blitz.

UCI will play host to Cal State Fullerton on Saturday at 5 p.m., before playing four of its next five conference games on the road.

BIG WEST CONFERENCE

UC Irvine 66, UC Santa Barbara 62

UCI – Galloway 2, Smith 2, Dimakopoulos 8, Nelson 14, Martin 14, Rutherford 8, Worku 5, Greene 4, Rivers 3, Leonard 3, Edgar Jr. 2, Hazzard 1 .

3-pt. goals – Martin 4, Nelson 3, Leonard 1, Rivers 1, Worku 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

UCSB – Hart 6, Kupchak 4, Vincent 15, Childress 12, Powell 10, Slajchert 12, Terrell 3.

3-pt. goals – Childress 2, Powell 2, Vincent 1, Terrell 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

Halftime – 32-25, UCI.