TAIPEI, Taiwan – In a tightly contested battle, the UC Irvine men's basketball team defeated the professional league champions from Korea, 87-82.

Both fifth year student athletes Pierre Crockrell II (14 points, 10 assists) and Dean Keeler (13 points, 13 rebounds) notched double doubles in the game.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Guards Dylan Thoerner and Justin Hohn also scored in double figures
>Thoerner and Hohn were the only players to shoot perfect from the charity stripe
>UCI held the advantage off the glass, 48-35
>UC Irvine tallied 42 points in the paint to Korea's 32
>Guard Andre Henry pulled down eight boards and denied a basket at the rim
>Forward Eli Chol went 3-4 from the floor in seven minutes including a three-pointer
>The Anteaters blocked six shots in the contest
>Korea was led by their big men Griffin Bryan and Maxwell Du'Vaughn who scored 25 and 24, respectively

The 'Eaters and Korea went back and forth in the beginning of the first period before the professional league champions were able to pull away and win the quarter, 27-21. Crockrell II had six of the points and guard Langston Redfield contributed four on his perfect 2-2 shooting in the period.

After the regroup, UC Irvine came out hot and quickly regained the lead from Korea. Offensively, redshirt sophomore Akiva McBirney-Griffin and redshirt senior Justin Hohn chipped in four points while sophomore Hayden Welling had two. Defensively, McBirney-Griffin blocked a shot and H. Welling grabbed three boards. The Anteaters outscored their opponent by ten to lead 48-44 at the half.

The third period saw pure fight from both squads as the Korean team clawed back within distance of the 'Eaters and reclaimed the lead for a short period of time. Big man Keeler kept being fed under the basket to post six points while fighting on both ends of the floor to record seven rebounds. Guard Thoerner saw perfection in his five minutes making both baskets and his and one shot at the line. Four more tallies were added by Hohn and Jurian Dixon added his name to the scoresheet on his drive down the lane.
 
Thoerner nailed a three-point basket to extend the Anteaters lead in the middle of the final period. Big men Keeler and McBirney-Griffin helped to seal the win for UCI for their plays on the defensive end contributing half of the team's 14 rebounds.

UP NEXT
The Anteaters will close out the five game stretch the Chinese Taipei B squad at 7 p.m. China standard time (4 a.m. PST) on Wednesday August 16.