IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine trailed by two at the half, but was out-scored 22-46 by Belmont in the final 20 minutes of a 58-84 loss at the Bren Events Center Friday evening.

The Bruins shot 64.3 percent from long distance in the second half, knocking down 9-14 from beyond the arc and ending with 13 on the night, the most given up by UCI this season.

The Anteaters, who gave up a season-high 84 points and watched Belmont shoot a season-high 51.8 percent from the field (29-56), went 20-63 from the floor (31.7%) the second lowest mark of the season.

UCI snaps a four-game winning streak and goes to 7-5 overall, while Belmont improves to 12-1.

HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER SAID:
"We have a quick turnaround. We've got to focus on that because we're going to play a really good North Dakota State team in El Paso in two days. I'm disappointed tonight that we got dominated the way we did in the second half. Credit to Belmont. They're really good and we knew that."

"Belmont is one of the top offensive teams in the country, year after year. We've been that defensively to this point on most nights. We were not that in the second half against Cal Baptist, and we were not that tonight. And we've got to be able to find a competitive level to perform."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Guard Jurian Dixon led the Anteaters with 17 points. He had five rebounds, two assists and a steal
>Center Elijah Chol went 3-6 from the field, including two three-pointers. He also had four blocks, which ties his season-high
>Guard Andre Henry came off the bench to add 10 points on three three-pointers and a free throw
>Forward Kyle Evans pulled down a team-best seven rebounds to go with four points and two blocks
>Guard Tama Isaac totaled six rebounds and five assists
>Forward Harrison Carrington added six points, two rebounds and two steals
>Belmont had five players in double-figure scoring and were led by Drew Scharnowski with 14 points and nine rebounds. Sam Orme had a game-high 12 rebounds to go with 12 points
>The Bruins out-rebounded UCI 46-32, the second fewest rebounds this season
>Belmont had 43 points from the bench

FIRST HALF
>Jurian Dixon started the scoring for UC Irvine, coming off a screen and hitting a three-pointer on the first Anteater possession of the game
>UCI held Belmont to just 2-9 (22.2%) shooting from the field heading into the first media timeout, taking an early 10-7 lead
>Nes Emeneke lit up the Bren with a put-back dunk, 12-9 (14:05)
>Belmont ripped off a 6-0 run before the Anteaters snapped it with a Harrison Carrington layup to cut the Bruin lead to 15-14 (12:43)
>UC Irvine broke a short scoreless stint with an Andre Henry three-pointer to regain a 17-15 lead with just over 10 minutes to go in the half
>A 14-1 Belmont run gave the Bruins a 31-20 lead before Carrington put in a layup to stop the run and end the Anteater drought. UCI capitalized on the momentum-stopping bucket and scored six straight to bring the score to 31-26 (4:47)
>Elijah Chol reignited the Bren crowd with an and-one dunk, making the free throw before another five points from Dixon tied the game. On the next possession, Chol got his second block of the game and Dixon took the ball coast-to-coast for a layup that gave UCI a 36-34 lead and capped off a 10-1 Anteater run (1:43)
>A pair of Belmont free throws gave the Bruins a 38-36 lead at the halftime break

SECOND HALF
>Belmont came out of the break quickly, building a 10-point advantage 48-38 before an Henry four-point play breathed life back into the UCI offense
>The basket was wide open for both teams as Henry and Chol put two more three-pointers only to watch Belmont answer with two more of its own to retain a 54-48 lead headed into the half's first media timeout
>An 8-0 Bruin run in under two minutes sent UCI into a timeout and opened up the Belmont lead to 66-50 (10:15)
>UCI broke the drought with a three-pointer from Chol, his second of the game, 53-68 (8:19)
>A 14-3 Belmont stretch extended the lead to 72-53 with just over five minutes remaining in the half
>The Bruins would go on to win 84-58

NOTES
>It was the 10^th game this season the Anteaters have had six or more blocks
>Dixon has recorded double-figure points 10 times this year

UP NEXT
UCI travels to the Weststar Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational for a pair of games, starting with North Dakota State Sunday (Dec. 21) at 4:00 p.m. PT