LONG BEACH, Calif. – A late rally by UC Irvine came up short in a 73-67 loss to Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid Saturday afternoon in a Black & Blue Rivalry game presented by Duke's of Huntington Beach.

UCI erased a nine-point Beach lead late in the second half and took the lead at 3:45 (59-58). The teams were tied at 64-64 on a Collin Welp basket with 2:09 to play, but the Anteaters would manage just a three-pointer by Justin Hohn with 23 seconds left, while watching The Beach score nine points, seven from the free throw line, down the stretch to solidify the win.

UCI falls to 6-7 overall and 1-3 in the Big West, while LBSU goes to 8-9 on the year and 3-1 in league action.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Senior forward Collin Welp poured in 20 points and had a game and season-high 11 rebounds, his second double-double of the year, He recorded his third 20-point game of the year and 10^th of his career, hitting 8-11 from the field and 4-4 from the line
>Guard Justin Hohn ended with 13 points, adding a three-pointer and four of five free throws
>Austin Johnson had 10 points, all coming in the first half
>The Anteaters shot 52% (13-25) from the floor in the second half after going 11-30
in the first (36.7%). UCI ended the game 24-55 from the field (43.6%), bettering The Beach who were 38.2% (21-55) for the game. The black and gold hit six three-pointers to the blue and gold's four
>UCI topped LBSU on the glass, 36-33
>Long Beach scored 18 points off of 16 Anteater turnovers
>LBSU's Joel Murray led all players with 24 points, going 12-12 from the free throw line
>Aboubacar Traore followed with 19 points and a team-high seven rebounds and Colin Slater added 11 points

FIRST HALF
>Austin Johnson came out strong, scoring eight of UCI first 10 points, the last at 15:31, 10-6
>DJ Davis would hit a three-pointer in the corner at 15:10 to put UCI up 13-6
>The Beach would knock down three three-pointers and out-score UCI 13-2 to take a 19-15 lead at 9:07
>LBSU would lead by 5 (6:21) then UCI rallied with six in a row on a basket by Bent Leuchten, free throw by Emmanuel Tshimanga and a three-pointer by Langston Redfield at 4:18 (25-24)
>Welp would hit a jumper and a pair of free throws in between a Murray three-pointer giving UCI a 29-28 with 39 seconds remaining
>The lead would not last switching back to The Beach with two free throws by Aboubacar Traore with 10 seconds on the clock, 30-29
>There were seven lead changes in the first 20 minutes

SECOND HALF
>The Anteaters came out aggressive with Collin Welp scoring on a spinning drive to the basket and a hook shot plus a layup and free throw by Justin Hohn, 36-32 at 18:07
>The Beach would score eight in a row in a 13-2 run to give LBSU its biggest lead (45-38). UCI's lone basket a Hohn free throw line jumper  at 15:22
>Three Bent Leuchten free throws were UCI's only offense in a 9-3 spurt by Long Beach over three minutes, 54-41
>A 6-0 run by UCI that included four points from Welp closed the gap to 47-54 at 7:52
>Following two LBSU free throws, UCI caught fire, scoring 10 in a row on a basket and free throw from Tshimanga (6:18), a JC Butler driving layup (5:36), a DJ Davis three-pointer from the left side and a Welp rebound tip back at 3:45 to regain the lead 59-58
>Each team would have three free throws before Welp had a layup at 2:09 to knot the score at 64-64
>LBSU would get a layup by Slater then record five free throws over the next 1:23 to open a 71-64 lead with 23 seconds to go
>Hohn had a three-pointer (:14) before Slater closed out the scoring with two free throws    

UC IRVINE HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER SAID
"I'm pleased with the effort to come back again, second game in a row. It's not easy to do that, but its even harder to finish a comeback like that it takes so much effort and intensity. Give Long Beach credit for destroying us on the glass in the second half. They made the plays."

NOTES
>UCI hasn't lost three in a row since, falling to Boise State, Colorado and TCI from Nov. 15-21, 2019
>For the second consecutive game, the opponent went to the free throw line more than the Anteaters. LBSU was 25-30, while UCI was 15-19.

UP NEXT
UCI will spend the next week at home, hosting CSU Bakersfield Thursday (Jan. 27) at 7:00 p.m. and Cal Poly Saturday (Jan. 29) at 6:00 p.m. Please see Bren Events Attendance policy before heading to the game.