LONG BEACH, Calif. – UC Irvine never trailed in a 69-58 victory over Black & Blue rival Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid Thursday evening.

Forward Kyle Evans led UC Irvine with his ninth double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He went 5-7 from the floor and 4-6 from the free throw line, while 10 of his boards came on the defensive end. The nation's leader in blocks added six tonight, totaling 93 overall and moved into sole possession of second place on the UCI season list. He also moved into third in the Big West season list, passing UC Santa Barbara's Eric McArthur (1989-90) who had 91.

UCI shot 52.2 percent (24-46) from the floor for the game, including 56.5 (13-23) in the second half. The Anteater defense held The Beach to 31.8 percent from the field (21-66) and just 27.6 percent (8-29) in the first 20 minutes.

The Anteaters improve to 18-9 overall and sit on top of the Big West standings at 11-4.

HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER SAID:
"I'm grateful that we won. I did think that our big guys were better and more assertive in the second half. ?And that's important for us because in the first half, we were super soft inside. I thought defensively we were outstanding. So, I don't want to act like we weren't ready. ?I thought we were ready. We defended at a really high level. I think we can continue to get better when we play a team a second time and have picked up more of their tendencies and things that they like to do. We can often get better at taking their best things away. We did a little bit of that tonight with enough of that to maintain control of the game. So I'm appreciative of that."

 

FORWARD KYLE EVANS SAID:
"That's a good feeling coming down here and getting a win on the road. Coming down here in a rivalry game, taking care of business, it feels good. I think we learned a lot tonight. We learned we have to take care of the ball, especially in those bigger games coming down towards the end of the season in March. ?Toughness, taking care of the ball, that stuff is gonna carry. Defense is a factor in it, but we have to continue to grow on all that."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Guard Derin Saran went 6-8 from the floor, including a three-pointer for 13 points. He tied his career-high with four steals plus had three rebounds
>Forward Harrison Carrington matched Saran with 13 points, going 4-5 from the field and 4-7 from the line
>Guard Jurian Dixon totaled 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals
>Freshman Tama Isaac added nine points, six rebounds and four assists
>Guard Jovan Jester Jr. had five points while Andre Henry had four points, and Akiva McBirney-Griffin pulled down five rebounds in the win
>LBSU's Gavin Sykes led all players with 16 points. The Beach lose their eighth straight and fall to 8-19 overall and 4-11 in the Big West
>The Anteaters out-rebounded Long Beach State 39-35, grabbing 32 on the defensive glass

FIRST HALF
>UC Irvine won the tip and immediately got Kyle Evans open in the post for a layup to begin play (19:38)
>Long Beach State tied the game at two with a pair of free throws, but the Anteaters responded with a 6-0 run after Jurian Dixon put a layup in, Evans got another basket at the rim and Harrison Carrington came off the bench to score a layup and give UCI an 8-2 lead (16:11)
>UCI's defense held strong, keeping The Beach off the board for 5:04 and taking a 12-6 lead in the process (9:00)
>LBSU battled back, getting the score to 12-10 before a Derin Saran floater and Carrington three built the lead back up to 17-10 (6:55)
>After Long Beach State tied the game at 18, UCI got a floater from Tama Isaac, a layup from Jovan Jester Jr. and another Isaac bucket at the rim to push the lead back to six with just 0:33 remaining in the half. On the other end, The Beach got a basket to send the game to halftime with UCI leading 24-20

SECOND HALF
>A Saran layup and Dixon jumper got UCI off to a 4-0 start to the half before a Long Beach basket got LBSU on the board, making the score 28-22 in favor of the Anteaters (17:59)
>UCI got back-to-back highlight buckets — one from Evans, who hit a drop step in the post and one from Jester Jr. who put a transition dunk down to give UCI a 36-26 lead (16:00)
>After Long Beach cut the lead back to single digits, UCI got back on track with an Andre Henry three-pointer banked in by the graduate guard to put the Anteaters ahead 48-37 (10:31)
>The Anteaters held Long Beach State without a field goal for nearly four minutes, building their lead to 61-45 after Carrington converted on an and-one layup (4:59)
>A 6-0 Long Beach run got the Pyramid crowd back in the game and cut UCI's lead back down to 10 (64-54) with just over two minutes in regulation remaining
>Carrington and Isaac hit a pair of free throws and Henry had one, while Evans recorded his sixth block of the night to help finish off a 69-58 UC Irvine victory 
 
NOTES
>It is the fifth opponent this season UCI has held under 60 points. The Anteaters are 92-4 in Big West games under Coach Turner when they've allowed 60 points or fewer
>With both the men and women's teams beating The Beach tonight, UCI and LBSU are tied 13-13 in the rivalry standings
>Evans is now 13 blocks shy of Mamadou Ndiaye's school record of 106 set in 2013-14
>The Anteaters picked up their fourth consecutive win over The Beach
>UCI improves to 15-1 when leading at the half (24-20)
>Carrington has recorded double-digit points in eight of the last nine games
>The Anteaters had a season-high 22 turnovers that Long Beach used to score 16 points
>The Beach had 20 second chance points to UCI's two

UP NEXT
UC Irvine returns home to host UC San Diego Saturday (Feb. 21) at the Bren Events Center. Tip is set for 7:00 p.m