LONG BEACH, Calif. – In a battle of the two top offensive teams in the Big West, UC Irvine (15-8, 8-3 BW) dropped 93-88 in overtime to Long Beach State (14-10, 8-4 BW) at the Walter Pyramid.
 
Dawson Baker led the Anteater offensive charge behind a season high 23-point performance on 6-14 shooting. The guard added a career best nine makes from the free throw line (9-11) and four steals.
 
Pierre Crockrell II notched his first double-double in a UCI uniform with 10 points and 10 assists, both season and career highs, respectively.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Baker blocked his first shot of the season
>Guard DJ Davis added 19 points on 5-12 shooting from the field with two triples
>Davis went a perfect 7-7 at the charity stripe
>Forward Devin Tillis poured in 12 points and nine rebounds
>Tillis shot 5-8 from the floor, 2-3 from behind the arc
>Forwards Dean Keeler and Akiva McBirney-Griffin both made their two shot attempts
>Long Beach State was led by Marcus Tsohonis, recording 26 points on 10-23 shooting from the field, five boards, and five assists

FIRST HALF
>Both teams exchanged baskets before Devin Tillis (18:21) received the from Pierre Crockrell II at the top of the arc to knock down a three-point basket, 5-4
>An Anteater foul sent Long Beach State's AJ George to the line at 18:01, making both his shots, 5-6
>Crockrell II found McBirney-Griffin under the hoop, jumping above the defender for the two-point basket, 11-4 (16:44)
>UC Irvine then went on a 10-0 run that started with a Crockrell II floating jump shot at 16:21 and was capped by Dean Keeler's hook shot at 14:06, 15-6
>Eight straight points from The Beach over 1:21 brought them back within one, 15-14
>Dawson Baker stole the ball from LBSU off their poor pass, finding Crockrell II who fed a wide-open DJ Davis standing outside the arc for the trey, 18-14 (10:47)
>Tillis ran down the court after taking the ball from a Long Beach player at 10:29 for the easy drop-in, 20-14
>Akiva McBirney-Griffin grabbed the ball off the glass on the defensive end to set up a play that allowed Hayden Welling (9:06) to have a two-handed slam that was followed by another Crockrell II (8:37) jumper inside the paint, 24-16
>Baker picked the pocket of The Beach again before nailing a three-ball at 4:32, 32-23
>With the next offensive possession set up, Crockrell II found Chazz Hutchison (2:46) at the post to hook it in the hoop, 34-27
>LBSU went on an 8-2 run to cut the lead down to one heading into half-time, 36-35
 
SECOND HALF
>Hot out of the break, UCI went on a 9-0 run with back-to-back baskets from McBirney-Griffin (19:25, 18:14), a Davis free throw (18:14), and two second chance put-ins from Tillis (17:24, 16:59) heading into the media timeout, 45-35
>Baker drew the and-1 call on his driving lay-up at 16:06 for the three-point play, 50-38
>The Anteaters would go up by 13 at 14:42 when Davis dished to Justin Hohn for the three-point jump shot, 53-40
>A 7-0 LBSU run was halted by Crockrell II who floated the ball over The Beach's defenders into the basket, 55-49 (12:00)
>Long Beach State cut the lead down to one after Marcus Tsohonis drove to the hoop at 10:37, 55-54
>Baker passed the ball off to Crockrell II for the fade away jumper at 7:40 to keep UCI up by five, 67-62
>Two makes at the line for Long Beach State at 2:21 tied the contest at 72-all
>After drawing contact from a LBSU defender, Baker was sent to the line with four ticks on the clock and put UCI in the lead, 80-78
>Tone Hunter was given the ball on the Long Beach State inbound pass, was touched on his drive up to the basket, and tied the game 80-80 on his two made free throws to send the game into extra time
 
OVERTIME
>UCI won the jump ball to set up the play where Baker hit a triple at the top of the arc at 4:39 to give the Anteaters the early advantage, 83-80
>Crockrell II was once again able to stop a Long Beach State scoring run, knotting the game at 85 apiece with 2:19 left on the clock
>It was all LBSU down the stretch, outscoring UCI 8-3 in the final 1:23 minutes of the contest
 
NOTES
>UC Irvine has posted four 80+ point scoring efforts during conference play (at UC Davis, CSUN, and both games with Long Beach State)
>The last time an opponent scored 90+ in game versus UCI was Southern California on Dec. 8, 2020, recording 91 points
>UCI's last overtime loss came against Hawai'i on Jan. 30, 2021, in Honolulu where the 'Eaters dropped 62-61
>Baker has recorded double-digit points in 18 consecutive games, 22 on the season, and 44 in his career to average 14.9 points a game (16.5 in conference)
>Davis now sits 18^th all-time in UC Irvine history with 114 career made three-pointers and is two makes away from catching 17^th
>Crockrell II has tied his career high 10 assists twice this season, both against Long Beach State
>The Anteaters shot at a 0.850 clip (17-20) from the line, their third game shooting over 0.800, helping the team improve to an overall 0.710 clip for the season

UP NEXT
UC Irvine returns to the Bren Events Center on Thursday Feb. 11 to host Cal Poly. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.