FULLERTON, Calif. – UC Irvine (13-7, 6-2 BW) and Cal State Fullerton (11-11, 5-5 BW) battled down to the wire where the Titans prevailed after knocking down a trey with three seconds remaining in the contest, 62-61.
 
Guard Dawson Baker once again took control of the game in the series with CSUF during the second stanza where he scored 14 of his 16 points.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Baker shot 7-11 from the field and perfect 2-2 from the line while adding two rebounds and two assists
>Guard DJ Davis was the first Anteater to reach double figures with 13, cashing in on two three-pointers
>Davis striped the ball away for a new season best in steals (3)
>Forward Devin Tillis put up his sixth double-digit game of the season with 10 points where he went 2-5 from deep and brought down four rebounds
>Ofure Ujadughele tied both his season highs in rebounds (7) and assists (2)
>Forward Akiva McBirney-Griffin had his third consecutive career game with five boards, two dimes, a block, and four attempts from the line
>JC Butler was the only player in the contest to go perfect from three-point range making his two shots
>Cal State Fullerton was led by Latrell Wrightsell Jr., recording 26 points on 8-15 shooting from the field including five three-pointers (5-7) and knocking down all his shots from the stripe (5-5)

FIRST HALF
>DJ Davis scored on back-to-back possessions (18:09, 17:00) to pull the Anteaters out of the early deficit, 4-3
>Cal State Fullerton's Latrell Wrightsell Jr. knocked down a three before Devin Tillis made one from behind the arc off the dish from Akiva McBirney-Griffin at 15:24, 7-8
>The Titans went on 6-0 run over three minutes until Ofure Ujadughele found JC Butler for the three-ball, 12-14 (11:45)
>UCI tied the game and reclaimed the lead off two free throws (11:24) and a steal from Andre Henry that was converted on a driving lay-in (10:32) by Ujadughele, 16-14
>Dawson Baker tried to get by the Titan defender, but found Tillis who made his three-point shot from the logo at 9:16, 19-18
>The Anteaters held CSUF scoreless on two consecutive plays down the court to allow Dawson Baker to capitalize on the seventh lead change with his drop in, 21-18 (7:31)
>The game would be tied at 22-22 with 5:31 remaining
>Justin Hohn dished to Hayden Welling at 2:32 for the make on his mid-range jump shot near the baseline, 24-26
>The Anteaters would get out-scored 11-6 to go into the break trailing by five, (33-28) 
 
SECOND HALF
>McBirney-Griffin confronted Vincent Lee as he approached the rim, rejecting his shot and sending Dawson Baker down the court where he would get fouled. Davis would knock down a three off the inbound to close within 37-38 (17:02)
>The Titans would answer with the next three points before Baker spun through the lane for a layup at 14:59, 39-42
>UCI trailed by six until Baker had a jumper (13:47), Ujadughele dished to JC Butler for a left side three (12:28) and Dean Keeler (11:22) and Baker (10:51) free throws
>The Anteater run was capped by a scrappy play by Baker collecting a ball that looked to be striped and putting in with a layup at 9:51, 50-45
>Cal State Fullerton scored the next five over 1:43 to knot the score once again, 50-50 (8:08)
>Tied at 54, Devin Tillis would back down the defender to score at 4:22, 56-54
>McBirney-Griffin went up high to bat a ball away and at the other end Tillis scored again while a Titan was called for a flop. Davis converted the extra free throw at 3:42, 59-54, making their biggest lead
>Two free throws and a three by the Titans tied the game with 1:19 to play, 59-59
>Baker hit a jumper deep in the shot clock with 48 ticks left, 61-59
>Davis missed the front end of a one-on-one and CSUF drove up the floor where Wrightsell Jr. hit a long three at the top of the arc with three seconds left to give the Titans the 62-61 lead
>Following several timeouts, a final shot by UCI rattled out as the buzzer went off
 
NOTES
>UC Irvine continues to outscore their opponents in the paint and off the bench
>UCI held Cal State Fullerton to under a 0.360 clip from the field in the contest
>Baker has recorded double-digit points in 15 consecutive games, 19 on the season, and 41 in his career to average 14.5 points a game (16.1 in conference)
>Baker is 10 points away from hitting 300 tallies on the season and 30 away from 800 in his career
>Davis is the second Anteater to average 14 points on the season and is doing so both in conference and overall
>Keeler (4-4), Baker (2-2), and Ujadughele (2-2) all were perfect from the line where Baker set a new high of 14 consecutive free throws made
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine returns to the Bren Events Center to close out the Big West series with CSUN on Saturday Jan. 28 for a 6 p.m. tilt.