UC Irvine Falls Just Short at UCSB, 77-74
March 3, 2010
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- A furious second-half rally by UC Irvine fell just short as UC Santa Barbara held off the Anteaters, 77-74, before 3,418 at the Thunderdome Wednesday night.
With the win, the Gauchos (18-9, 12-4 Big West) clinched the No. 1 seed in next week's Big West Tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center.
UCI (13-17, 5-10), playing for its Big West tourney life, may have to win its regular-season finale at Cal Poly Saturday night depending on what Cal State Northridge and UC Riverside do over the weekend. Those three teams each have five league wins with Northridge hosting UC Davis Thursday and Pacific Saturday. Riverside travels to Long Beach State Friday.
James Nunnally led UCSB with 22 points and seven assists while Orlando Johnson added 20 points for the Gauchos, who shot 57.1 percent from the field.
Eric Wise scored 22 points for UCI, marking his 12th 20-point game of the season and the 18th of his career. He scored 16 of his points in the second half and hit 10 of 15 field goals in the game.
Michael Hunter added 18 points, hitting 4 of 11 threes. He has 230 career threes, three behind all-time UCI leader Ross Schraeder, who converted 233 treys from 2002-06.
Darren Moore added nine points while Patrick Rembert had eight points and six rebounds.
Emil Kim posted career highs of seven points, three assists and three steals off the bench for UCI, which shot 65.4 percent in the second half and 53.8 percent in the game.
The Gauchos, who led 37-28 at halftime, built a 47-31 lead on a layup by Jaime Serna with 17:07 left in the game.
The Anteaters, still trailing by 10 at 62-52 on two free throws by Nunnally with 8:04 remaining, went on a 15-5 run over the next four minutes to pull within 67-65 on a Hunter three with 3:49 left.
UCSB went up 73-67 on a pair of free throws by Johnson with 2:06 remaining, but a three by Moore at the 1:46 mark an a basket by Wise with 1:04 left pulled the Anteaters to within 73-72.
Nunnally hit two more free throws with 34 seconds remaining for a 75-72 UCSB lead, but Wise hit a jumper with 28 seconds left to bring UCI within one at 75-74.
Johnson missed two free throws with 18 seconds remaining and Rembert grabbed the second rebound and was fouled with 15.7 seconds left.
Rembert missed the front end of the 1-and-1 and James Powell grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Kim with 14.1 ticks remaining.
Powell hit both foul shots for a 77-74 lead and a three-point attempt by Wise fell off the rim with three seconds left.
UCSB was 20 of 31 from the free-throw line in the game, including 15 of 22 in the second half and 6 of 8 in the final 2:06.
UCI hit 9 of 13 free throws in the game. UCSB hit 9 of 14 threes including 6 of 10 in the first half. The Anteaters hit 9 of 21 threes.
"We started playing a bit better defense after we got down by 16 in the second half," UCI head coach Pat Douglass said. "Eric Wise became more aggressive and got it going in the second half and Emil Kim came in and played excellent defense.
UCI faces Cal Poly Saturday night at 7:00 at Mott Gymnasium in San Luis Obispo.
