ANAHEIM, Calif. --- UC Irvine fell just short in the Big West Conference Tournament championship game Saturday night as the Anteaters were defeated by UC Davis, 50-47, at the Honda Center.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the top-seeded Anteaters (21-14), who will learn their opponent for the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Sunday evening. UCI earned at least an NIT bid by winning the Big West regular-season title.

Big West Player of the Year Luke Nelson led the 'Eaters with 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists Saturday night. He scored 12 of his points in the second half as UCI mounted a rally after trailing 24-16 at halftime.

Nelson and senior guard Jaron Martin, who scored 18 points in Friday's semifinal win over UC Davis, were named to the all-tournament team.

Freshman forward Tommy Rutherford scored 11 points, hitting 5 of 6 shots, and added five boards while senior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos added 10 points and two blocked shots in Saturday's championship game.

Freshman guard Eyassu Worku also had five rebounds with sophomore forward Brandon Smith registering four boards and a pair of steals.

Brynton Lemar led second-seeded UC Davis (22-12) with 20 points, including 13 in the second half. Chima Moneke, the tournament MVP, had nine points, seven rebounds and three blocks.

The game had a slow start offensively for both teams as the Aggies scored the first six points and UCI did not get on the board until Max Hazzard's layup with 13:44 left in the opening half.

UC Davis led throughout the half and took at 24-16 lead at the break as UCI shot just 26 percent from the field.

The Anteaters opened the second half with a 13-4 run to go up 29-28 on a dunk by Rutherford off a Martin feed with 12:39 remaining.

There were eight lead changes in the final 8 ½ minutes as the teams battled basket-for-basket.

UCI took its largest lead of the night at 40-35 on a put-back by Rutherford with 5:56 left and went up again by five at 42-37 on two free throws by Dimakopoulos with 4:09 remaining.

UC Davis then went on a 9-0 run, capped by a pair of free throws from Lemar with 1:30 left, to take a 46-42 lead.

Nelson hit a deep three with nine seconds remaining to pull UCI within one at 48-47, but Lemar hit two free throws with 5.8 seconds left for the final margin.

The Anteaters shot 48 percent from the floor in the second half and 38 percent for the game while the Aggies hit 34.6 percent of their shots. UC Davis was 11 of 18 from the foul line to 6 of 7 for UCI.

Each team grabbed 35 rebounds while the 'Eaters committed 20 turnovers and the Aggies 16.

Saturday night marked UCI's third appearance in the Big West final in the past five years.