FULLERTON, Calif. - The UC Irvine women's basketball team locked up the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Big West Tournament with a 68-52 win over Cal State Fullerton Saturday evening at Titan Gym.
 
The Anteaters (13-17, 9-7 Big West) won their fifth-straight game to finish the regular-season in a tie for second. Due to tiebreakers, the 'Eaters will be the third seed, earning a first-round bye into Wednesday's quarterfinal round.
 
UCI led for the entire second half, but the Titans (16-13, 8-8 Big West) were able to pull within one early in the fourth quarter. Junior Haleigh Talbert then hit a clutch three to spark an 18-3 Anteater run over the final seven-plus minutes.
 
"Haleigh Talbert once again came out firing and got our momentum going," head coach Tamara Inoue said. "Defensively, I thought we really closed out on the rebounding in the second half."
 
BY THE NUMBERS: Freshman Sophia Locandro finished with a team-high 16 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Talbert also had 15 points (4-7 3FG), six boards and three assists, while senior Lauren Saiki added eight points, nine assists and three steals.
 
Freshman Jayde Cadee chipped in nine points on three triples, and junior Tahlia Garza registered eight points and a season-high tying eight rebounds. Junior Dani Guglielmo also notched six points and seven boards.
 
UC Irvine shot 53% (12-23) from beyond the arc, while holding Cal State Fullerton to 17% (5-29). The 'Eaters also held the advantage in field goal percentage (37%-to-30%) and turnovers forced (11-to-9).
 
Raina Perez and Aimee Book paced the Titans with 16 points each. Book made it a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: After trading buckets over the first couple minutes, Cal State Fullerton went on a 9-3 run to pull ahead, 13-8, at the 4:55 mark. UC Irvine then punched right back with a 12-0 rally, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers from Talbert, to take a 20-13 lead with 2:00 remaining. The Titans then ended a three-minute scoring drought to make it a five-point game at the end of the first quarter.
 
CSF took the momentum to start the second period, tying it up at 22-all with 5:02 to play. It went back-and-forth over the next three minutes before consecutive triples from Guglielmo and Cadee gave the Anteaters the lead for good. They closed out the frame on an 8-3 run for a 32-29 edge at the half.
 
The 'Eaters came out firing in the third quarter as they went up 41-31 on a Locandro layup at the 7:50 mark. Cal State Fullerton then reeled off seven-straight points, but a bucket from Garza started a 7-2 spurt that increased UCI's margin to 48-40. The Titans would knock down a three to close the gap to five.
 
In the fourth quarter, CSF quickly cut the deficit to one with 8:54 on the clock, but Talbert answered with a clutch three to swing the momentum back to UC Irvine's side. The Anteaters went on to outscore Fullerton, 18-3, over the final 7:30 to run away with the 68-52 win. They scored the final 12 points of the game with back-to-back treys from Saiki and Cadee putting a stamp on the victory.
 
UP NEXT: UC Irvine will begin the Big West Tournament in the quarterfinals next Wednesday, March 11. The Anteaters will play the lowest remaining seed at 6 p.m. at Long Beach State's Walter Pyramid.
 
NOTES
• UC Irvine is riding a season-long five-game win streak into next week's Big West Tournament.
• The Anteaters are one of the hottest teams in the conference right now, winning eight of their last 10.
• They completed their second regular-season series sweep over Fullerton in three years.
• The 'Eaters have come out on top in six of their last seven meetings with the Titans.
• Sophia Locandro put up 10+ points and 2+ blocks for the ninth time in the last 10 games.
• Lauren Saiki narrowly missed her third-straight double-digit assist performance, and is averaging 11.0 apg in the last three outings.
• Saiki increased her single-season school record total to 210.
• Haleigh Talbert combined to go 8-for-15 (53%) from 3-point range in two games this week.