Eugene, Ore. – UC Irvine held off Weber State for a 57-54 victory at the Global Sports Cage Classic held at the Matthew Knight Arena Sunday.
The Anteaters went 2-1 during the tournament and are 2-5 overall, while Weber State remains winless at 0-6.
Methlyn Onogomuho scored UCI's first seven points and Anete Klintsone scored the next six as the Anteaters jumped out to a 13-6 lead with 12:24 to play. The Anteaters would score nine unanswered to go ahead 24-9 at 6:45 and again to open the cushion to 33-13 with 3:56 remaining in the half. UC Irvine would head in to the locker room with a 37-18 lead. The Anteaters dominated down low, out-scoring the Wildcats 24-8 in the paint.
UCI would lead by 18 (52-36) with 8:48 remaining in the second half when Weber State would make a charge, out-scoring the Anteaters 14-3 to narrow the Anteater lead to five, 55-50, with 3:41 to play. Klintsone would sink a pair of free throws to put UCI up 57-50, but that was the last time the Anteaters would score. After Mikell Woodfield put back an offensive rebound, Amanda Hughes put back an offensive rebound to close the gap to 57-54 with 1:27 remaining. UCI would miss the front end of consecutive one and ones allowing the Wildcats to continue to have life before a three-pointer by Justine Johnson came up short with two second on the clock and Pernilla Hanson grabbed the rebound to secure the win.
Junior guard Anete Klintsone led UCI with a career-high 15 points, hitting 5-8 from the floor. She also grabbed seven rebounds which tied her career-high. Sophomore Jasmine Bernard recorded her first career double-double with 12 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in 16 minutes of action. Freshman forward Methlyn Onogomuho added 12 points and six rebounds, while junior forward Jazmyne White recorded 10 points and six rebounds.
Justine Johnson was the only Wildcat in double figure scoring, recording 14 points on 6-10 shooting from the field, including 2-3 three-pointers. She also snatched four steals. Shawnte Taylor had a team-best eight rebounds. After shooting just 29.2 percent (7-24) from the floor in the first half, Weber State shot 51.7 percent (15-29) in the second half.
UCI will return home to host Santa Clara Saturday (Dec. 3) at 4:00 p.m. in the Bren Center.
______________________________________________________________________
For UC Irvine Athletics ticket information, please call (949) 824-5000 or e-mail athletics.tickets@uci.edu. For more information click here.
For information on how you can help support UC Irvine Athletics, please call (949) 824-6933 or e-mail aaf@uci.edu. For additional information, click here.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
