FULLERTON, Calif. --- Senior forward Will Davis II scored a season-high 21 points and UC Irvine withstood a second-half rally by Cal State Fullerton as the Anteaters prevailed 63-58 in a Big West Conference game at Titan Gym Thursday night.
Davis was 7 of 10 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line, plus he added seven rebounds as UCI improved to 9-8 overall and 2-1 in the Big West.
Sophomore guard Jaron Martin scored seven points while junior guard Alex Young, senior guard Travis Souza and junior forward Mike Best had six points apiece. Young had a game-high five assists and also had five rebounds.
Sophomore guard Luke Nelson returned to action for the first time since Dec. 22 after sustaining a facial injury in a late-December practice and scored five points as did senior post John Ryan and sophomore center Ioannis Dimakopoulos. Junior guard Dominique Dunning had five rebounds, including a key put-back late in the game.
Alex Harris led the Titans (8-9, 0-2) with 17 points and Lanerryl Johnson added 14.
The 'Eaters built a 42-26 halftime lead as Davis scored 13 of his points in the opening 20 minutes.
UCI led 49-32 on a basket by Best with 17:19 remaining in the game, but then went 9 ½ minutes without scoring as Fullerton closed to within 49-44 on a free throw by Harris with 10:09 left.
A jumper by Young with 7:49 remaining finally broke the Anteaters' scoreless stretch and gave UCI a 51-44 lead.
Kennedy Esume's basket with 5:24 left brought Fullerton within 51-46, but a layup by Nelson with 4:34 remaining pushed UCI's lead back to seven points.
Esume hit another shot with 4:14 left to close the gap to five before Dunning's put-back in traffic with 3:28 remaining extended the 'Eaters' lead to seven once again.
Two free throws from Davis with 3:04 left gave UCI a 57-48 lead, but the Titans wouldn't go away and cut the deficit to three at 59-56 on a Harris basket with 1:57 left.
The 'Eaters, on the ensuing possession, broke Fullerton's press and Nelson gave Davis a perfect feed for a dunk to extend UCI's lead to 61-56 with 1:48 left.
Johnson answered with a jumper at the 1:34 mark to pull the Titans within 61-58, but two free throws from Young with 12 seconds remaining would be the only scoring in the final 90 seconds.
UCI shot 47 percent from the field in the first half but hit only 29 percent in the second half to shoot 39.7 percent for the game. The Anteaters were 0 of 5 from three-point range in the final 20 minutes and 4 of 12 in the contest.
Fullerton shot 42 percent from the field and hit just 3 of 11 threes for the night.
UCI had 10 turnovers to the Titans' 16 and Fullerton had a 39-33 rebounding edge.
The win was UCI's sixth straight in the series, which featured its 100th meeting Thursday night. Fullerton leads the series, 52-48.
Coach Russell Turner's Anteaters are back on the road next week, facing CSUN Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Hawai'i one week from Saturday (Jan. 24) at 9:00 p.m. (PT).
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