RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- UC Irvine's three seniors combined for 54 points to lead the Anteaters over UC Riverside, 68-56, in a Big West Conference game at the SRC Arena in Riverside Wednesday night.
With the victory, UCI (18-13, 11-4) clinched a top-two seed for next week's conference tournament and the Anteaters will host UC Davis Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center for the Big West regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the league tourney. The Aggies (18-11, 10-4) host Hawai'i Thursday night before traveling to Irvine.
Anteater senior guard Luke Nelson scored a game-high 21 points (13 in the second half) and by hitting four threes, he became UCI's career leader with 240.
"It's a great honor to be part of the history books at a great school," Nelson said following the game in an interview with the Big West Conference.
Nelson ranks fifth all-time at UCI with 394 assists and 136 steals, and is eighth with 1,438 points as he closes in on No. 7 Kevin Magee (1,475).
Senior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting Wednesday evening and added five rebounds.
Senior guard Jaron Martin scored 14 points and added three assists. Sophomore forward Jonathan Galloway had seven points and seven rebounds (six offensive), and sophomore forward Brandon Smith pulled down six boards and had two blocked shots.
Freshman guard Eyassu Worku snared six rebounds and freshman forward Tommy Rutherford collected five as the Anteaters outrebounded the Highlanders, 43-31.
Secean Johnson led UCR (7-20, 5-11) with 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Highlanders had a 26-21 lead with 6:17 left in the first half, but UCI went on a 12-5 run to take a 33-31 halftime advantage.
After UCR tied the game at 33-33 with 18:35 remaining in the game, the 'Eaters launched a 15-1 run, capped by a three-point play from Galloway with 12:25 left, to forge ahead 48-34.
The Highlanders closed to within seven points several times late in the game, the last at 57-50 with 4:04 remaining, but UCI scored the next eight points to go up 65-50 on a three by Nelson with 2:14 left.
UCI outscored UCR, 30-18, in the paint and the Anteaters had 17 offensive rebounds to claim a 17-2 advantage in second-chance points.
The victory was UCI's 70th in the last 74 games when holding the opponents to 60 points or less.
UCI shot 40.7 percent from the field and held UCR to 33.3 percent as the 'Eaters have won 69 of their past 77 games when limiting the opposition to under 40 percent.
Saturday afternoon's game against UC Davis is Senior Day at the Bren Center, as Dimakopoulos, Martin and Nelson will be honored prior to the game.
"They have been an impressive class and they're trying to leave their mark here at the end," UCI head coach Russell Turner said in his postgame radio interview.
"This the biggest game we've had at home in Irvine since I've been here and I'm excited for that," Turner added in discussing Saturday's showdown with UC Davis.
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