EDINBURG, Tex. --- UC Irvine's 11-point halftime lead vanished in a 73-59 loss to UT Rio Grande Valley Saturday night in UTRGV Fieldhouse.

UC Irvine (4-8) rode a steady diet of early buckets to a 17-7 lead just over six minutes in. The 'Eaters carved through the pressure-paced UTRGV (6-6) defense and full-court press and built the lead to as much as 17 points leading 34-17 with 5:36 left in the half.

The Vaqueros slowed the Anteater charge as the half approached cutting the deficit down below double digits as the 'Eaters stretched the lead back to 38-27 by the intermission behind 10 from Max Hazzard.

UTRGV made the first move in the second half scoring the period's first six points and ground the deficit down to just two points eight minutes into the half at 42-40. Hazzard would reignite with a pair of threes extending the lead back to 10 points just like that, but the Vaqueros continued to apply the pressure forcing turnover after turnover blowing past the 'Eaters with a 19-2 run and on its way to the 73-59 defeat.

"Everything changed. Credit to Rio Grande for imposing their will on us throughout the course of the second half," noted Head Coach Russell Turner on the heels of his teams third straight loss. "I thought we came into this game ready to play with a good gameplan, and I thought we performed well at the beginning of the game. We weren't obviously able to do that after halftime."

UCI struggled to maintain its first-half pace where it shot 55 percent from the field and dominating in the paint with a 20-4 advantage. UTRGV's pressure defense forced the 'Eaters into 24 turnovers with the Vaqueros scoring 26 points off of them, and dropped the 'Eaters' shooting percentage in the second half to under 23 percent.

"I'm not sure what our team is. This team we played tonight had a more clear identity about who they were than we did and they beat us. We've had a tough schedule, a lot of travel, there's excuses we could use, but right now we were unable to perform at a level good enough to win tonight, and that disappoints me. I think that we've got a lot of work to do. We turned the ball over 24 times, that was the obvious key for us to perform well tonight and we couldn't answer."

The Anteaters had a lot of bright spots highlighted by another high-end performance from Max Hazzard leading the team with 16 points including four three-pointers, and led the team playing 30 minutes which tied a career-high. UCI continued to handle its business on the glass outrebounding the Vaqueros 43-31 thanks to a game-high 10 from Tommy Rutherford and eight from Jonathan Galloway to go with three blocks for the junior.

The loss does drop the 'Eaters to 4-8 on the season now with losses in three straight. Senior Nick Dixon led the way for UTRGV with 23 points and he added four steals as did Lesley Varner Jr. Dan Kimasa pitched in 12 points as well while Javon Levi dished out seven assists.

"I'm not interested in making this into a positive. I think that we should be disappointed in our performance, we should be a little bit embarrassed that we weren't able to perform better. I think that the appropriate thing to do is allow this game to teach us hard lessons, hopefully those lessons that we're learning build like scars that will harden us up and makes us more attentive to how hard it is to win, and all the things we've go to do to perform and come out victorious because that's what we expect to do."

UC Irvine rolls right along with its third game in a five-game road trip with a week until heading to Saint Mary's College to face the Gaels for a fourth straight year with a 5:00 p.m. matchup on Saturday, Dec. 16.