SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- The 'Eaters and Gauchos came together for a late-night game featured on ESPNU, and UCSB rode a strong second half to earn the win over UCI, 70-58, Saturday night in The Thunderdome.

After an evenly-played first half that UC Irvine (8-14, 3-3) exited with a one-point advantage, UC Santa Barbara (14-5, 3-2) surged out to a 13-7 run in the first three minutes of the half to snatch the momentum back in front of 3,823 in attendance.

UC Irvine, behind a team-high 17 points from Tommy Rutherford, fought its way back into a 47-47 tie with 6:48 remaining. The game seemed to turn in the Gauchos' favor after that as UCSB found its shooting touch, and the Anteaters suddenly went cold as a 12-0 Santa Barbara run would create an immense mountain climb.

The Gauchos would not relinquish their double-digit lead riding out game to a 70-58 win and end UCI's short-lived two-game win streak.

Rutherford added five rebounds to his 17 points, and Elston Jones led the team with six, but UCSB controlled the boards on the night, 42-30. Eyassu Worku joined Rutherford as the only Anteaters in double digits with 10. Evan Leonard had an admirable effort in a career high 35 minutes holding the leading scorer in the conference, Max Heidegger, to 14 points on the night as the pair shared the game high in assists with five each.

"I think if we had rebounded in the second half we could have won this game. We didn't rebound, we couldn't win," head coach Russell Turner pointed out following the game. "I thought our shot selection in the second half at times was questionable. When we got down eight, we decided we were going to go back inside over and over again, we got the game tied, and as soon as we did that, we started chucking up jumpers, and I didn't like those decisions very well. I still think we could have won if we would have toughened out some rebound possessions, but we weren't able to do that.

Heidegger took a back seat to senior Gabe Vincent who rallied for 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half grabbing the reins on the offensive end for UCSB. Jalen Canty added 20 of his own along with 11 rebounds for the double-double, and Leland King II snagged 14 rebounds as the Anteaters could not keep the trio at bay.

"I give Santa Barbara credit, they have big, physical guys that are old. It made me feel like they outworked us and that they had a little more desire for the loose balls. Looked like they were the hungrier team."

The 'Eaters return to .500 in the Big West now at 3-3, 8-14 overall. UCI comes back home for one game next week hosting winless UC Riverside Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN3

NOTES: UCI was outrebounded for just the fourth time on the year, and the -12 rebounding margin is its largest disparity previous held at -8 (Montana)...UC Irvine committed just nine turnovers, the third time this season with less than 10 turnovers in a game (8 vs. Chapman, 9 vs. Idaho)...the 24 first half points for UCSB was the lowest first half total allowed to a Division I opponents this season by UCI (22 - Chapman)...Evan Leonard's 35 minutes eclipsed his previous career high of 33 set against Nevada...tonight's loss was only the second this season in which UCI committed fewer turnovers than its opponent (Cal State Fullerton)