UC Irvine pulls away from CSUN for 2-0 start to Big West play

IRVINE — The UC Irvine men’s basketball team got what it was looking for before going on a 13-day break, a second Big West Conference victory.

The Anteaters overcame a slow start and a halftime deficit against Cal State Northridge before emerging with an 85-71 victory on Saturday night at the Bren Events Center.

UCI (7-4 overall, 2-0 Big West) was coming off a 73-60 win against visiting UC Riverside in its conference opener on Thursday night.

“These two Big West games at home, the schedule broke our way,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “On the road, I don’t know if we can win this game, because we had to come back to do it.”

Derin Saran scored 17 points, including nine in the last five minutes, and grabbed seven rebounds, and Kyle Evans contributed 12 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots for the Anteaters.

“We’re not playing a game for another two weeks, so we really wanted to get this one,” said Saran, who transferred to UCI this season after playing his sophomore season at Stanford.

The Anteaters received plenty of contributions elsewhere.

Andre Henry scored 12 points off the bench, Tama Isaac also scored 12 and Jovan Jester Jr. contributed 10 points in a reserve role for UCI, which has won four in a row overall.

Larry Hughes II scored 18 points and Josiah Davis had 14 points and 10 assists for CSUN (4-5, 1-1).

Mahmoud Fofana added 11 points and 11 rebounds, Davius Loury also scored 11 and Jordan Brinson started for the first time since sustaining a season-ending knee injury two years ago and contributed seven points and five rebounds.

UCI trailed at halftime for the first time this season.

The Anteaters took what was then their biggest lead of the game at 68-62 on a 3-pointer from the wing by Andre Henry with 6:33 left. Hughes then scored five straight points to cut the deficit to one with 4:58 to go, but Saran scored on a reverse layup in transition and then banked in a shot to re-establish a five-point edge.

Evans delivered his third block of the game, leading to a fast-break layup by Isaac for a 74-67 lead with 3:15 remaining.

Evans, who played at Santa Margarita High, came into Saturday’s game third in the nation at 3.2 blocks per game.

“Our program is a great fit for him, for a lot of reasons, and not just because he’s a local guy,” Turner said. “We value the special skills that he has and to be able to block as many shots as he has, to have the brain that he has on defense and to be able to rebound at that level, that’s unusual. I think he’s going to continue to get better.”

Saran followed with a wide-open 3-pointer, tied up the ball on the other end for a jump ball and then scored on a pull-up jumper in the lane for a 79-69 lead with 2:01 left.

“We asserted ourselves defensively in the second half. I thought we had a weak defensive performance in the first half, and credit to Northridge for that. Those guys were ready,” Turner said. “They jumped up and made a bunch of shots that they haven’t always made this season, and we had to take several punches from them in order to come out on top tonight.”

The Matadors shot 7 for 14 from 3-point range in the first half, but just 1 for 8 in the second half.

UCI was 5 for 10 from behind the arc in the first half and 4 for 9 in the second half.

The Anteaters had seven turnovers in the first half, but cut it down to four in the second.

The Matadors scored the first five points of the game before UCI took its first lead at 9-7 on a second-chance 3-pointer by Isaac.

Hughes hit a 3-pointer to move CSUN back ahead and a pull-up jumper to make it 13-10, but he went to the bench with his second foul with 13 remaining in the half.

Hughes checked back in with the Matadors trailing 19-18 and he immediately hit a 3-pointer to put his team back ahead 21-19 and another to make it 27-24.

Jester converted a four-point play to tie it back up at 30-30 with 4:34 left in the first half, but Northridge eventually took a 41-37 lead into intermission.