LONG BEACH, Calif. – UC Irvine swept the Big West series against Long Beach State after a 73-58 win in the second game, Saturday at Walter Pyramid.

UCI (16-8, 10-4) secured the No. 2 seed at the upcoming Big West tournament and will play on Thursday, March 11 at 5 p.m. The Anteaters will play the winner of Tuesday's No. 7 Cal State Fullerton and No. 10 Cal Poly matchup.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Dawson Baker led the 'Eaters with 14 points. He also finished with two assists, two three-pointers made and three rebounds
> DJ Davis also finished in double-digits with 10 points and three assists
> Collin Welp had nine points to go along with nine rebounds and three assists while Brad Greene also finished with nine points
> The Anteaters shot 43.5 percent (30-69) from the field overall and 33.3 percent (7-21) from long range. LBSU finished 21-61 (.344) shooting overall and just 28 percent (.280) from behind the arc
> UCI held a 44-41 edge in rebounds and outscored the Beach 15-4 in second chance points and 38-20 in points in the paint
> LBSU's Collin Slater led the team with 15 points

FIRST HALF
> A hot start gave the Anteaters a 10-0 lead at 17:00 before LBSU scored eight-straight points to make it 10-8 with 12:27 remaining
> LBSU's Chance Hunter hit a three to put the Beach up, 17-16 (8:5)
> Baker hit a three for the 'Eaters giving them a 24-20 lead with 6:30 to play before the Beach would respond with a three-pointer to knot the game, 26-26 (4:57)
> DJ Davis closed out the half with a jumper and a layup to give the 'Eaters a five-point, 35-30, advantage at the half

SECOND HALF
> A three-pointer from Isaiah Lee started a 10-0 run for the Anteaters that gave them a 15-point, 47-32, lead with 15:27 to play
> A 6-1 run from the Beach cut the UCI lead to 10, 54-44, with 8:08 to play
> The Anteaters responded with a 13-2 scoring spurt to break open the lead and go up, 67-46, with 3:35 remaining
> Dean Keeler made a layup to make it 69-50 (1:37) followed by a layup from Jayce Catchings and two made free throws from Ofure Ujadughele to seal the Anteaters 73-58 win

Notes: UCI is riding a four-game win streak … The Anteaters finished with double-digit Big West wins for the ninth-straight season … UCI has won three-straight against the Beach and improves to 49-60 in the all-time series ... Since 2012-13, UCI is 112-7 when holding opponents to 60 points or less

QUOTE FROM HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER
"I was pleased with our starters and how we began the game tonight. I thought we were locked in and competitive, you could see that in the start of the second half as well. We withstood a Long Beach run in the first half by Collin Slater individually. The pressure is going to be on next week and we are going to try to embrace that with our young team. We have the ability to perform and we are going to have to rise up over the next week."

UP NEXT
UCI will travel to Las Vegas for the 2021 Big West Tournament March 11-13. The winner of the tournament will receive the conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana.