IRVINE, Calif. – The UC Irvine women's basketball team led by as many as 11 in the third quarter, but was unable to hold off a late Idaho State rally as the 'Eaters ended up falling, 78-72, Sunday afternoon at the Bren Events Center.
 
UCI, which suffered its first home loss, dropped to 2-2 overall, while the Bengals remained perfect at 4-0.
 
"Idaho State is a great shooting team, so for us we had to play good defense," head coach Tamara Inoue said. "I thought we got away from that early in the fourth quarter; we started taking quick shots and then not defending. After that, we just couldn't get into a groove again."
 
Freshman Haleigh Talbert led the Anteaters with a season-high 14 points on a 5-for-10 shooting performance. Sophomore Lauren Saiki was also in double figures with 13 points (5-7 FG), and freshman Tahlia Garza nearly had a double-double with seven points and a season-best 10 rebounds.
 
Sophomore Yazzy Sa'Dullah registered nine points, while junior Andee Ritter and redshirt freshman Autumn Baumgartner had eight each. Ritter also finished with five rebounds and two steals, and Baumgartner dished out a game-high five assists.
 
UC Irvine shot 41.9 percent (26-62) from the floor and 42.9 percent (6-14) from 3-point range.
 
Idaho State jumped out to a 16-7 lead midway through the first quarter, but the 'Eaters came right back with six unanswered to cut the deficit to three. They ended up closing out the period on an 8-1 run to make it 17-15. The Anteaters held the Bengals without a field goal over the final five minutes.
 
ISU then scored the first bucket of the second frame before UCI used a 7-2 spurt, capped by a Ritter jumper, to take its first lead of the night, 22-20, at the 7:00 mark. The advantage was short-lived as the visitors responded with a 3-pointer on their next possession. UC Irvine eventually knotted it back up at 28-28 on a Garza layup with 2:57 remaining, and it went back-and-forth from there as the two teams headed to the locker rooms in a 35-35 deadlock.
 
The 'Eaters got hot in the third quarter where they were 10-of-14 overall and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. UCI opened on a 14-7 run, which ended with a traditional three-point play from Talbert, to pull ahead 49-44 at the 4:57 mark.
 
The Anteaters then found their stroke from deep with Talbert knocking down a pair of triples and junior Deijah Blanks adding one of her own over a two-minute span to give UC Irvine a double-digit lead at 58-48 with 2:31 to go. A Baumgartner trey with 47 seconds on the clock increased the cushion to 11, but Idaho State was able to get one more bucket before the buzzer, making it 62-53.
 
The Bengals answered in the fourth as they went on a 16-4 run to reclaim the lead for the first time since the second period. They pushed their advantage to 72-68 with a 3-pointer at the 2:46 mark and then were able to get to the line down the stretch for the 78-72 victory.
 
Free throws proved to be the difference in the second half where Idaho State was 12-of-18 and UCI was 4-for-7.
 
Saylair Grandon paced ISU with 19 points, while Brooke Blair had 17. The Bengals shot 43.8 percent overall and were 7-of-18 from long distance (38.9 percent).
 
UC Irvine will now prepare for the UNM Thanksgiving Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M., Nov. 24-26. The 'Eaters will play three games in three days, starting with a 3:30 p.m. (PST) contest against Illinois on Friday. They are also set to square off against host New Mexico on Saturday and Wichita State on Sunday.
 
NOTES: Idaho State entered today's game shooting over 50 percent from the field and from 3-point range … Haleigh Talbert became the eighth Anteater to reach double digits in scoring this year … Tahlia Garza had UCI's first double-figure rebounding game … She now has 26 boards (13 off/13 def) in four games to lead the team with a 6.5 average … The 'Eaters had their fourth and fifth 20-point quarters of the year … Their 27 points in the third period were the second-most this season, behind the 35 they scored in the fourth vs. Utah State.