IRVINE, Calif. - Behind another 30-point effort from junior Morgan Green, the UC Irvine women's basketball team ran away with a 76-63 victory over UC Riverside Saturday afternoon at the Bren Events Center.
 
Green finished with a game-high 31 points, nine rebounds and four steals. She was 10-for-23 from the floor (5 3FG) and a perfect 6-of-6 at the charity stripe to tie her season high in the points column.

Even more impressive was the fact that she was held scoreless in the first quarter, before finishing with 11 at the half and dropping 20 over the final 20 minutes (15 in the fourth quarter alone). It was Green's third 30-plus point performance of the year and second in the last three outings.
 
Freshman Jordan Sanders notched her sixth-straight double-figure scoring game with 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Freshman Tahlia Garza added eight points and six rebounds, while junior Andee Ritter finished with eight points and three blocks. Sophomore Lauren Saiki also had seven points (3-4 FG) and senior Sabrina Engelstad contributed five points and five boards.
 
With their sixth consecutive win, the Anteaters improve to 16-8 overall and 8-2 in Big West action, marking their best 10-game conference start in school history. They have also tied the program's third-longest win streak which was last reached in 2010.
 
The 'Eaters shot 43.3 percent overall, were 6-of-23 from beyond the arc and 12-of-18 at the free throw line. They matched the Highlanders in the rebounding department (40-40), while forcing 21 turnovers.
 
"We came out a little cold," head coach Tamara Inoue said. "Bye weeks are great and are definitely needed for some rest, but sometimes they can be dangerous because we don't get our legs going. We were kind of in slow motion and it took us forever to get that first basket, but once that went in we got going a little bit."
 
Both teams actually got off to a slow start as they combined to go 0-for-8 from the field over the first three-and-a-half minutes. UC Riverside then ended the drought, but it was UC Irvine that pulled ahead, 6-2, following a pair of free throws from Engelstad at the 4:10 mark. The 'Eaters were able to stay out front until the Highlanders scored the final four points of the first quarter to take a 10-9 lead.
 
UCR (7-18, 4-7 Big West) went up 14-11 early in the second period before Green started to heat up with six points to spark an 8-0 rally that put the Anteaters on top, 19-14, with 5:38 remaining in the half. It was a seesaw battle over the next minute until Ritter and Engelstad put in back-to-back layups for a 25-18 advantage. Despite Green's second triple of the quarter, UC Riverside was able to cut the deficit to four (28-24) at the break.
 
UCI took its first double-digit lead in the third frame with a pair of Sanders' layups giving the home team a 40-30 cushion. UC Irvine increased its margin to as many as 13, but the Highlanders outscored the 'Eaters, 16-6, over the final six minutes to make it a three-point game (50-47) heading into the fourth.
 
UCR continued to chip away in the final quarter and pulled even at 52-52 with 7:14 to go. Green then hit a couple of clutch 3-pointers to swing the momentum back to the Anteaters' side as they proceeded on a 17-5 run to pull ahead, 69-57, at the 3:08 mark. That was all the separation UCI needed as it led by at least 10 points the rest of the way.

"I thought we had a good handle on the third quarter but (UCR) made a run at the end," Inoue stated. "Then, in the fourth quarter we did a much better job of changing it up and a lot of the credit for that goes to Morgan Green. I truly believe she is the best player in this conference; it would be hard to convince me otherwise."
 
UC Riverside shot 40.7 percent overall, but was just 2-of-11 from long distance. Michelle Curry and Lauren Holt paced the Highlanders with 20 points and five assists each.
 
UC Irvine will be back at the Bren Events Center next Thursday, Feb. 15, when it hosts Cal Poly in its annual Think Pink Game. The 'Eaters and Mustangs are set to tip off at 5:30 p.m. in the front end of a doubleheader with the UCI men's team.
 
 
NOTES: At 16-8, UC Irvine has seen a 13-game improvement from where it was at this point last year (3-21) … Nebraska and Rutgers are the only other two NCAA Division I programs that have also had a plus-10 difference in the win column this season … Since Nov. 30, the 'Eaters are 14-3, marking the best current 17-game stretch in the Big West … UCI earned its first regular-season series sweep over UC Riverside since 2000-01 … The Anteaters forced at least 20 turnovers for the third-straight game and 12th time this year … Morgan Green has reached double figures in scoring in all 10 games she has played this season, and seven of those have been 20-plus point performances … Her three 30-point efforts are tied for the second-most in program history … The Anteaters improved to 12-0 when Jordan Sanders scores at least 10 points … Sanders has found her stride in Big West play where she is averaging 13.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per outing.