Box Score

West Lafayette, Indiana – UC Irvine was out-scored 38-17 in the second half and suffered a 69-44 loss to Purdue in the first game of the Basketball Travelers International (BTI) Invitational at the Mackey Arena Friday afternoon.

UC Irvine (1-10) was led by sophomore guard Irene Chavez with 10 points followed by freshman Tierra Hicks with eight points and sophomore Shereen Sutherland with seven.

Purdue (5-4) was led by Whitney Bays with 13 points, going 9-13 from the free throw line. Lisa Clemons added 12 points and April Wilson recorded 11 points in the victory.

The teams were tied at 13 before Purdue out-scored UCI 13-3 to open a 26-16 lead with 4:05 to go in the first half. UCI was held scoreless for nine minutes until Irene Chavez hit a jumper at 3:16. The Anteaters went on a 9-5 run to close out the half, trailing Purdue 31-27 at intermission.

UCI would score the first 5 points of the half, taking a 32-31 advantage on a Chavez three-pointer at 18:45, but the lead was short lived as the Boilermakers would record the next 10 points to open a 42-32 gap with 14:26 remaining. UCI would score 12 points the rest of the game.

UCI continues at the BTI Invitational tomorrow, taking on Wright State at 9:00 a.m. PT then Denver on Sunday (Dec. 21) also at 9:00 a.m. All games will be played in Mackey Arena on the Purdue campus.