IRVINE, Calif. – The free throw line was the difference in UC Irvine's 80-70 loss to Long Beach State at the Bren Events Center Wednesday.
 
The Forty-Niners went 23-27 from the free throw, while the Anteaters made only 10 trips, making seven.
 
The Anteaters suffer their first Big West loss (2-1) and go to 14-5 overall. The Forty-Niners are 8-10 overall and improve to 2-0 in conference play.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Guard Evan Leonard led UCI with 16 points, hitting 4-9 from long distance
>Forward Jonathan Galloway had a game-high 14 rebounds, which ties a career-best
>John Edgar Jr. added 11 points on 4-6 shooting from the floor
>Deishaun Booker led all players with 28 points, going 15-16 from the free throw line
> The 'Eaters shot 40 percent (28-70) from the floor and just 28 percent (7-25) from long range while LBSU was 27-55 (.491) overall
>UCI held advantages in rebounds (39-34) and assists (16-11) however, committed 10 turnovers to the 49ers' five. LBSU scored 13 points off UCI's mishaps


TURNING POINTS
FIRST HALF
>After Tommy Rutherford gave UCI a 5-2 lead, Long Beach State went on an 8-0 run on two buckets each by Bryan Alberts and Mason Riggins to take a 10-5 advantage (13:19)
>UCI was 2-11 (18.2 %) from the floor until John Edgar Jr. hit a three (11:32) and a jumper followed by a free throw (11:03) to knot the score at 12-12
>Evan Leonard drained back to back three-pointers to give the Anteaters a 18-13 lead at 9:54 and force a LBSU timeout
>A three-pointer by Collin Welp was followed by a baseline layup by Leonard to extend the lead to 25-18 with 6:13 remaining in the half 
>Rutherford had a bucket at 4:43 to give UCI its largest lead of the half (27-20) only to watch the Forty-Niners score the next six to close to 27-26 at 3:20
>Following a Welp layup (2:55) LBSU scored the next four to move back in front 30-29
Leonard would knock down a triple from the right corner (0:56) to end the scoring with the Anteaters taking a 32-30 lead in to the locker room
 
SECOND HALF
>Leonard started the second half where he left off knocking one down from beyond the arc, 35-30 (19:37)
>A Forty-Niner three-pointer and a pair of free throws tied the game at 35 all at 18:28
>The teams would never get more than two points of each other until Long Beach State scored nine unanswered to move out to a 63-56 lead with 5:00 remaining
>LBSU would out-scoring UCI 17-14 the rest of the way, 80-70
> Galloway had nine points in the second half

HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER ON TONIGHT'S LOSS
"Offensively we didn't make shots, we didn't make layups and we didn't make plays. Tonight we weren't really competitive. Credit to Long Beach they out-played us and we just didn't show energy." 

NOTES
>It's only UCI's second loss at home this season (6-2)
>UCI snapped a three-game winning streak versus the Forty-Niners
>It is UCI's first loss when winning the battle of the boards (13-1) 
>UCI did not record a steal for the first time this season
>LBSU earns three points in the Black & Blue Rivalry series
 
UP NEXT
UCI will travel to CSUN Saturday (Jan. 19) for a 3:00 p.m. tip at the Matadome