MORAGA, Calif. --- In a game that saw 14 lead changes, UC Irvine let Saint Mary's just out of their grasp in a 73-66 defeat Saturday evening inside McKeon Pavilion.
The Anteaters (4-9) hung with Saint Mary's (9-2) throughout the entire first half as the lead swung back and forth throughout.
Evan Leonard got going with a pair of timely threes midway through the half to draw the Gaels back in and give UCI a 21-20 lead with 5:22 left. Saint Mary's went on an abbreviated run to take its largest lead of the half at 32-26 in the final minute as the half commenced at 32-28.
UCI accelerated into the second half quickly dropping the first five points of the period to take the lead back at 33-32. SMC began to ride its spectacular free-throw percentage forcing the 'Eaters into foul trouble and extending the lead to its largest point of the night, 65-56, as the game entered the final five minutes.
The 'Eaters continued to keep SMC honest until a huge call with 1:56 left seemingly took the air out of the Anteater rally. After a failed three-point attempt from Emmett Naar, Leonard went streaking down the left wing, forcing contact, and sending his runner home to cut the lead to five, but Jordan Ford instead earned the offensive foul to steal the momentum back. Calvin Hermanson would knock down a contested three at the other end to swing it back to a nine-point Gael lead and dash UCI's hopes sending the contest to the final of 73-66.
UCI had a much better performance throughout the entire game leaving Saint Mary's to shoot 41.1% while picking up five blocks and five steals against a team that protects the basketball better than any team in the country.
"We need to play more consistent for longer and I thought defensively tonight we did that," echoed head coach
Russell Turner. "I thought that in the second half, we turned the ball over a little too much which has been the biggest issue we've had offensively. We played a little bit better overall, that's to be expected now that we're through final exams. These are all conscientious, academic kids so to have that pressure relieved is a big deal, and I'm excited now to move forward."
The 'Eaters found its second-half shot shooting 57.7% in the second half, but the turnovers, while kept at bay early on, continue to rear its ugly head totaling 16 on the night in part to the team's 26 fouls sending the Gaels to the line 29 times. The seven-point loss is the second-closest margin of the defeat against a squad ranked in the top 25 to start the season.
"We've got guys on our team that came here to be a part of winning tradition and something that's special so to be 4-9 is hard on us and some of that is because of the difficulty of the schedule and some of that is because we haven't performed well enough in the opportunities we've had to win and tonight's another example of that. We could have grind out this game and win it, we just weren't quite good enough. We are going to get better, I'm sure of that, and that's going to be incremental and sometimes not look like a clean straight line up, but we've made some improvement and pleased about that."
UC Irvine's 4-9 record comes at the expensive of one of the toughest non-conference schedules thus far in the season. The ledger pushes on with a quick turnaround trip back north to Montana on Tuesday, Dec. 19 before continuing on to Boise, Idaho for a neutral-site contest with Idaho as part of the festivities surrounding the Potato Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 21.
