IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine's starting lineup was outstanding as the Anteaters out-lasted UC Davis 78-76 at the Bren Events Center Saturday afternoon. 
 
UC Davis (15-12, 8-7) took a 66-64 lead with 5:04 remaining, but the Anteaters would rise to score eight in a row to regain control 72-66 with 2:09 left. The Aggies closed to 72-71 before DJ Davis hit a big three-pointer with 55 seconds on the clock. UCD responded with a three of their own and forced UCI to take a shot that bounced long, but Devin Tillis grabbed an important offensive rebound and was eventually fouled, making one of two. UC Davis's final half-court shot caromed off the backboard for the 78-76 UCI victory. 
 
The Anteaters improve to 19-8 overall and 12-3 in the Big West, picking up their fourth consecutive victory. 
 
UCI's starting lineup was productive, scoring 69 of the Anteater's 78 points. Davis and Dawson Baker led UCI with 18 points each. 
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Center Bent Leuchten scored 14 points while grabbing a game high nine rebounds
>Leuchten also dished out three assists and blocked three shots
>Devin Tillis notched a career best five assists in the contest and brought down seven boards
>Guard Pierre Crockrell II poured in a season high 10 points, eight were in the first half
>Dean Keeler played a part in the defensive paint to collect six balls off the glass
>UC Irvine outrebounded the Aggies, 39-36
>The Anteaters scored the same number of points in the first half as they did in the second, 39
>UC Davis' Elijah Pepper posted his fourth consecutive 30-point performance, recording 32 points 10-21 from the floor, 5-11 from three-point range, and 7-7 from the line 
 
FROM HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER
"Really excited to finish the game and come out ahead. Guys made plays and clutch free throws as well as stops to get back in the game and earn the win. I give UC Davis credit. They had a great competitive spirit in the second half."
 
FIRST HALF
>UC Davis would drop-in the first points of the game, before UCI would score 10 straight started by a jumper by Pierre Crockrell II (19:15)
>Bent Leuchten found Dawson Baker driving down the lane for the basket and a foul, 4-2
>Crockrell II threw the ball the length of the court finding DJ Davis streaking to the basket for a layup at 17:30, 6-2
>Leuchten rebounded his own shot for a put-back at 16:22, 8-2
>Akiva McBirney-Griffin had a defensive rebound then hustled up the court, trailing a missed shot he went up high for a rebound dunk, 10-2 (16:00)
>Following a pair of Aggie free throws, JC Butler had a layup from an Ofure Ujadughele dish, 12-4 (15:17)
>UC Davis came alive scoring the next eight, two on Elijah Pepper three-pointers to knot the score at 12-12 (12:19)
>A pull-up jumper from Davis stopped the streak at 11:52 (14-12)
>A UCD basket was followed by a Devin Tillis three-pointer at 11:32, 17-14
>Crockrell II responded to another Aggie trey with two consecutive layups (10:05, 8:40), 21-17
>Tillis did his best Crockrell II impersonation with a long pass to Davis who went in for the layup and was fouled at 6:50, 24-17
>A pair of UCD free throws snapped UCI's 7-0 spurt, 24-19 (6:38)
>Crockrell II floated in a high-arching shot (6:15) before two more Aggie free throws at 6:06, 26-21
>Baker launched for long distance then three more Aggie free throws and another Baker jumper gave UCI the 31-23 lead at 5:01
>Chazz Hutchinson brought energy to the court, pulling down a rebound and scoring plus adding two free throws on the other side of a step back jumper by Baker, 37-23 (2:14)
>UC Davis would out-score the Anteaters 8-2 to end the half with UCI getting a pair of Baker free throws in the last two minutes, 39-31
>The Aggies went 9-12 from the stripe in the first 20 minutes 
 
SECOND HALF
>Leuchten came out of the break on fire, draining a three-pointer (19:31) then had a layup from a Tillis pass (18:44), 44-35
>Leuchten found Crockrell II for a reverse lay-in (17:49) then the favor was returned when Crockrell II passed through the paint for a Leuchten layup at 17:23, 48-35
>Tillis continued the UCI run with a floating basket in the middle of the paint, 50-37
>Eight in a row by UC Davis, three on free throws and three-pointer by Pepper helped the Aggies close within 50-45 at 14:56
>One free throw by McBirney-Griffin (14:30) and two by Davis (14:08) followed, 52-45
>Pepper would fuel a 12-0 Aggies run with eight points, two three-pointers, to put UCD in front 57-52 at 9:15
>UCI answered with a Leuchten layup and free throw (9:11) followed by a pair of free throws and a three-pointer by Baker, 60-57 (7:32)
>The Aggies would tie it at the other end before Baker drained a fallaway jumper from the right side, 62-60 (6:44)
>UCD had a jumper (6:19) and layup (5:32) then UCI had two Davis points from the line (5:20) to keep it deadlocked, 64-64
>UC Davis once again took advantage at the free throw line, hitting two (5:04) before the Anteaters had eight straight as Tillis spun baseline leaving his defender behind and getting fouled (4:05), Davis came off a Leuchten screen to knock down a leaning three-pointer (3:30) and Tillis backdown his defender then found Leuchten on the other side for a layup at 2:09, 72-66
>A three from UCD's Leo DeBruhl and a running floater from Pepper made it 72-71 with 1:20 to play
>The Aggie excitement was short-lived as Davis stepped back for a three-pointer at the top of the arc after juking the UCD defender with 55 seconds left, 75-71
>Out of a timeout, UC Davis responded with a three of their own (0:49), but fouled Davis on the drive and he sunk both from the stripe (0:42), 77-74
>A quick layup down the lane by TY Johnson with 36 seconds to go, 77-76
>With the shot clock still in play, UCI had to shoot but Tillis grabbed the important offensive rebound and after playing keep away, Tillis was fouled with two seconds left. He made the first but missed the second giving the Aggies the last shot.
>Following two timeouts, UCD took the ball from underneath UCI's basket and had a half-court shot that clanked off the backboard     
 
NOTES
>UC Irvine improves to 16-5 against UC Davis inside the Bren Events Center
>In 47 total meetings, 16 have been decided by three points or fewer with six contests decided by two points
>UCI is the first Big West team to reach 12 conference wins
>The Anteaters have now won five straight on their home court
>Baker has recorded double-digit points in 22 consecutive games, 26 on the season, and 48 in his career to average 15.2 points a game (16.6 in conference)
>Baker surpassed 400-season tallies with his 18 point performance and is 10 away from 900 on his career
>Davis now sits 16^th all-time in UC Irvine history with 126 career made three-pointers and is four makes away from catching assistant coach Alex Young (2012-2016) for 15^th with 130
>Davis sets a new streak of 15 consecutive games with a three-point basket and has made at least one in 26 games this season
>Leuchten has had four multi-block games this season
>The Anteaters currently hold the longest win streak in the conference with four
>UC Irvine is one win away from its 13^th 20-win season in program history and would be the eighth under head coach Russell Turner
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine will head back on the road, this time traveling to Cal Poly for a 7 p.m. start on Monday Feb. 20.