Box Score Irvine, Calif. – UC Irvine was led by its seniors in a 76-70 loss to UC Davis in the final regular season game at the Bren Events Center.
UCI ends the regular season 4-26 overall and tied Cal State Fullerton with a final 1-15 league mark, but by virtue of winning a coin flip, UCI is the No. 8 seed for the Big West Tournament which begins Tuesday (Mar. 8) at the Bren Events Center. The Anteaters will play the No. 5 seed which will be either UC Santa Barbara or Cal Poly at 6:00 p.m. Cal Poly takes on Hawaii at 9:00 p.m. tonight to determine the final seeding.
Senior Raelyn Cheung-Sutton led UCI with a season-high 17 points and a career-tying 12 assists, while senior Mokun Fajemisin had 16 points, a team-high nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Cheung-Sutton was 8-8 from the free throw line, extending her consecutive streak to 44. She was a perfect 40-40 from the line in conference play this season. It is the third time this year she has fired 12 assists, the most by a Big West player this year.
UCI junior Mckenzie Piper recorded 11 points, while freshmen Tayla Jackson and Andee Ritter added eight points apiece. The Anteaters continued solid free throw shooting, going 21-24 (87.5%).
UCI ended the day 23-65 (35.4%) from the field, including 3-10 from three. The Aggies beat UCI on the glass, out-rebounding UCI 47-34. UC Davis shot 23-55 from the floor (41.8%) and hit 6-17 from beyond the arc. The Aggies were 24-32 from the line.
A quartet of UC Davis players scored in double-figures led by Alyson Doherty's 15 points. Morgan Bertsch had 13 points followed by Kourtney Eaton and Rachel Nagel with 10 points each. Celia Marfone had a game-high 15 rebounds to go with seven points.
UC Davis led 21-15 after the first quarter and four free throws by UCI, two by Brittany Glassow and Irene Chavez in the second period, narrowed the margin to 25-24 at 6:53. The Aggies would go on an 11-2 run to build the UCD advantage back to 10 (36-26) at 4:16. UCI would close out the half scoring eight of the last 11 points to go in to the locker room trailing 39-34.
UCI started the third quarter with three straight baskets by Mckenzie Piper, Mokun Fajemisin and Raelyn Cheung-Sutton to give the Anteaters the lead 40-39 (7:45). Cheung-Sutton hit a pair from the free throw line to give UCI the 44-42 lead before the Aggies scored the next seven points to jump in front 49-44. After a layup by Piper, UC Davis would score the final six points to hold a 55-46 advantage at the end of the period.
The Aggies would open a 14-point lead (64-50) on a Morgan Bertsch layup with 6:57 to play. UCI made one last push on back-to back baskets by Fajemisin, 74-67 with 46 seconds remaining, but a jumper by UCD's Lauren Beyer would stop the momentum. UCI would score the final three points from the free throw line, the last with 13 seconds to end the game.
UCI ends the regular season 4-26 overall and tied Cal State Fullerton with a final 1-15 league mark, but by virtue of winning a coin flip, UCI is the No. 8 seed for the Big West Tournament which begins Tuesday (Mar. 8) at the Bren Events Center. The Anteaters will play the No. 5 seed which will be either UC Santa Barbara or Cal Poly at 6:00 p.m. Cal Poly takes on Hawaii at 9:00 p.m. tonight to determine the final seeding.
