IRVINE, Calif. --- Senior guard Travis Souza hit 5 of 8 threes and scored a career-high 17 points to lead UC Irvine over Cal Poly, 67-57, in a Big West Conference game at the Bren Events Center Thursday night.

With the victory, UCI (12-8, 5-1 Big West) won its fifth straight game and remained in a three-way tie for first place in the conference with Long Beach State and UC Davis.

Souza, who tied his career high with the five treys, moved past Jerry Green and Mike Hood into 12^th place all-time at UCI with 119 threes.

Senior forward Will Davis II added 14 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals. 

Sophomore guard Luke Nelson tied his career high with eight assists while senior post John Ryan, junior guard Alex Young and junior guard Dominique Dunning scored seven points each. Ryan also registered six boards and four blocked shots. 

Junior forward Mike Best had four points and five rebounds in eight minutes off the bench.

Reese Morgan led Cal Poly (10-9, 3-4) with 17 points and Joel Awich added 13 points and eight rebounds.

Souza scored nine of his points in the first half as the Anteaters led 34-25 at the break.

The Mustangs closed to within one point on four occasions in the second half, the last at 44-43 on a basket from Brian Bennett with 9:58 remaining.

UCI then went on a 12-0 run, capped by back-to-back threes from Souza, to build a 56-43 lead with 5:36 left.

The Anteaters' largest lead of the night was 16 at 61-45 after a bucket from Young with 4:05 remaining.

UCI won the battle of the boards, 39-28.  The Anteaters shot 46.6 percent from the field to Cal Poly's 42.1 percent.

UCI hit 9 of 18 threes and the Mustangs were 3 of 9.

Coach Russell Turner's Anteaters host UC Santa Barbara Saturday night at 7:00 in the Homecoming game at the Bren Events Center.

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