IRVINE, Calif. – The UC Irvine men's basketball team defeated Alaska Anchorage, 73-66, in an exhibition game Friday evening in front of 3,035 fans at the Bren Events Center.

Sophomore Tommy Rutherford led the Anteaters with a team-best 18 points to go along with six rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass. Sophomore Eyassu Worku also had 12 points in 16 minutes, while reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Year Jonathan Galloway pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds.

Redshirt freshman Justin Wertner added nine points and five assists, and junior Elston Jones notched four blocks.

"I thought Gallo was dominant defensively at times and on the boards, obviously," UCI head coach Russell Turner said. "He didn't have a great offensive night which surprised me a little bit because he's been playing really confidently on the offensive end. Give Alaska Anchorage credit for that because they really made him play in a crowd, so it was hard for him.

"Tommy is somebody I expect to be able to score and make the right decisions and the right plays. I thought he did a lot of that tonight. He knows we're expecting him to step forward this year as an offensive force."

As a team, the 'Eaters shot 41.3 percent from the field, while holding the Seawolves to 36.5 percent.

Alaska Anchorage scored the first five points of the night before Rutherford got UC Irvine on the board with a layup at the 18:12 mark. UAA would go up by as many as eight before the Anteaters went on an 18-0 run to take a 28-10 lead with 2:27 to go. Wertner sparked the rally with a pair of 3-pointers. UCI had gone 0-for-5 from beyond the arc before Wertner entered the game and hit his first shot from the corner.

The Seawolves then ended an eight-minute scoring drought, but the 'Eaters stayed out front, holding a 30-25 cushion at the half.

"Early on we looked shaky, but that's the way we looked in our first game last year," Turner said. "Some of that is to be expected. I thought we responded well by locking in on defense. We just didn't make any shots early on and a lot of guys looked like they weren't comfortable."

Both teams regrouped and came out strong after the break as they traded points until Rutherford scored six unanswered to put UC Irvine on top, 42-31, at the 16:56 mark. The Anteaters continued to roll, increasing their advantage to 18 with a Worku layup making it 55-37.

UCI kept a comfortable lead before Alaska Anchorage used a late 17-4 spurt to close the gap to 69-64 with 1:38 remaining. Rutherford then responded with a layup and after a defensive stop a pair of free throws from Galloway put the game out of reach.

"To win the game is good, but the way we finished the game was not good," Turner added. "I didn't feel we were competitive throughout 40 minutes of basketball tonight. I thought we had some good stretches and I thought we had some stretches where we were not very good. That's the way it goes this time of year with a young team, but we have very little margin for error in the schedule that is going to be presented to us a week from today."

Maleke Haynes led four Seawolves in double figures with 13 points, all of which came at the free throw line.

UC Irvine will officially start the 2017-18 campaign next Friday, Nov. 10, when it heads to South Dakota State for its season opener. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. (PST).