Press Conference

HENDERSON, Nev. – It went down to the wire, but No. 1 seed UC Irvine fell short, dropping to No. 4 seed Long Beach State, 83-79, in the first semifinal of the Big West Championship at The Dollar Loan Center Friday evening.

The free throw line was key with The Beach going 22-25 (0.880) from the stripe, including 15-17 in the second half, while the Anteaters were 10-19 (0.526).

UC Irvine was led by the backcourt with Justin Hohn recording 19 points and Pierre Crockrell II following with 18 points. Hohn went 7-15 from the floor with three three-pointers. Crockrell II knocked down 9-15, a season best, from the field and led all players with nine assists.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Center Bent Leuchten and forward Devin Tillis each totaled 10 points
> Leuchten grabbed a team-best nine rebounds
> Guard Andre Henry tallied nine points with three rebounds and two steals
> Fifth year senior Dean Keeler added six points and four rebounds
> Guard Derin Saran put in five points and had seven rebounds
> UCI shot 49.2 percent from the floor (32-65) and 10-19 from the line (52.6)
> Both teams grabbed 38 rebounds with UCI pulling down 14 off the offensive glass
> Long Beach State's Aboubacar Traore led all players with 20 points, hitting 4-8 from the floor and 12-13 (0.923) from the line

FIRST HALF
> Long Beach State hit six of their first eight shots to take an early 15-9 lead at 15:36
> Pierre Crockrell II ducked and dodged the incoming Beach defender for a jumper in the paint to close the gap to 15-11 (15:01)
> Justin Hohn took over the offense with nine points, the last a three at 8:42, 21-26
> UCI went on a 6-0 run that included a pair of Crockrell II jumpers and a basket from Devin Tillis in the paint, 31-27 (6:35)
> Crockrell II pulled up for two consecutive jumpers at the elbow, the last at 3:46, 35-33
> Hohn knocked down a three-pointer off the inbound pass from Crockrell II with 2:11 to go in the half, UCI's last points. The Beach scored the final six, the last on a dunk as time expired, 47-38

SECOND HALF
> UCI opened the second half on a 6-0 spurt in less than a minute that saw scores from Bent Leuchten (19:43), Hohn (19:29), and Crockrell II (19:09) to bring the Anteaters within three, 47-44
> Henry nailed a trey in front of the UCI faithful to equalize the game at 55-all with 15:12 on the clock, but The Beach scored seven unanswered to jump back ahead 62-55, 12:54
> Derin Saran got crafty, using his grabs off the glass to find ways to the hoop, to put the Anteaters ahead, 64-62 (9:24)
> The big men in Leuchten (4:23) and Dean Keeler (3:40) utilized the glass and the baseline to go up by one before Hohn responded to an LBSU basket with a three-pointer (2:58) heading into the under-4 media break, 73-71
> A pair of Long Beach State free throws at 1:05 and 0:15 gave them the four-point advantage, 79-75. Crockrell II hit a jumper (0:08) and Henry knocked down two shots at the line (0:03) to close in, 81-79. The Beach made two more from the charity stripe and a long three from the Anteaters fell just short as time ran out, 83-79.

NOTES
> The Anteaters had their 12th performance of the season where they scored 40 or more points in the paint
> Crockrell II remains at seventh place in program history with 390 career assists
> Crockrell II sits in third place in the all-time season assists leader board with his 212 assists in 2023-24
> Hohn is tied for 17th in the career three-pointers leader board with 131