IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine pulled away late in a 73-59 victory at Cal Poly on Thursday evening.

The Anteaters out-scored the Mustangs 18-8 in the final six minutes to lead UCI to its third straight win. UCI shot at a 0.531 clip from the floor in the second half, knocking down 4-6 from long distance.

Freshman guard Derin Saran returned to action and had a team best and career tying 17-point performance on 6-12 shooting from the floor, including 3-4 from three-point range. He also had a team high four steals which tied his career high.

Forward Devin Tillis poured in 15 points, shooting 7-9 from the field. The redshirt junior grabbed a team and game-best nine rebounds as well as two assists.

UC Irvine improves to 15-6 overall and 9-1 in the Big West, while Cal Poly goes to 4-18 overall and 0-10 in league action.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Guards Justin Hohn and Andre Henry each totaled nine points
> Forward Dean Keeler recorded eight points and matched Tillis with a team-high nine rebounds
> Keeler led all players with three blocks to reset his career high which he last hit versus CSUN (Jan. 27)
> Forward Carter Welling added six points and three rebounds
> Guard Pierre Crockrell II dished seven assists and had four points
> Cal Poly was led by Kobe Sanders had a game-high 23 points on 9-17 shooting including 3-4 from long range
> The Anteaters held the board advantage, grabbing 40 rebounds to Cal Poly's 33
> UCI was 11-12 (0.917) from the free throw line, all in the first half

FIRST HALF
> Cal Poly started with the first four points until Bent Leuchten had a layup and a free throw to get the Anteaters on the board (17:54). Devin Tillis and Justin Hohn followed with layups to make it seven straight points and give UCI the 7-4 lead at 16:12
> The Mustangs scored five in a row to take a momentary 12-11 lead only to watch UCI score the next six on a Derin Saran driving baseline layup, Carter Welling lay-in and Tillis jumper in the paint, 17-12 (9:55)
> A basket by Tillis and two Hohn free throws gave the Anteaters its largest lead, 21-13 at 8:04
> The Mustangs rallied with nine straight to move in front 22-21 (5:43)
> Two free throws by Dean Keeler, a three-pointer by Saran and a baseline jumper by Keeler built a 35-29 lead for the Anteaters with 51 seconds left in the half
> Cal Poly's Kobe Sanders knocked down the Mustang's fourth three-pointer of the half at the buzzer to sending UCI into the break with a 35-32 lead

SECOND HALF
> A jumper by Pierre Crockrell II and a Hohn layup started the half, 37-32 (19:08)
> Tillis drained a three at the top of the arc to give the Anteaters the 44-36 advantage at 16:07
> Cal Poly closed to 44-41 before Saran went to work with a jumper and a three-pointer to push the margin back to 49-41
> Tillis would be UCI's main source of offense scoring six of UCI's next eight points, the last a jumper in the paint at 5:27, 59-51
> Layups by C. Welling and Saran capped eight in a row by the Anteaters keeping UCI ahead 63-51 at 4:36
> Henry knocked down a three-pointer with 23 seconds left in the game before a Cal Poly layup with 13 ticks ended the scoring, 73-59

NOTES
> UCI had 33 points from the bench and 40 came in the paint
> Saran has recorded 12 double-digit scoring nights this season
> Hohn hit one three-pointer lifting him into a tie with Brett Lauer (2007-09) in the career three-pointers made leader board with 113 
> The UC Irvine five-man rotation of Dean Keeler, Carter Welling, and Bent Leuchten continues to rank top-10 in the Big West in blocks per game at fourth (1.3), seventh (1.2), and eighth (1.1) respectively
> UCI improved to 4-1 on the season when keeping their opponent under 60 points

UP NEXT
UCI returns home to host Hawai'i this Saturday (Feb. 3) at 7:00 p.m. at the Bren Events Center. UCI's newest Hall of Fame members will be introduced during the game including program great Will Davis II.