BAKERSFIELD — The UC Irvine men’s basketball team ended its regular season on a winning note. DJ Davis made sure of it.
Davis had a career-high 24 points as the Anteaters held off Cal State Bakersfield for a 66-61 win in a Big West Conference finale on Saturday afternoon. Davis finished 7 for 13 from the field, going 4 for 8 from 3-point range and 6 for 6 from the free-throw line in 26 minutes.
Justin Hohn had 12 points and a career-best seven rebounds for UCI (15-9 overall, 10-5 Big West), which shook off a frustrating loss at Cal Poly to win for the ninth time in its last 11 games. Austin Johnson added a team-high eight rebounds and three blocked shots, Dawson Baker had eight points and Colin Welp was held to seven points on 3-for-13 shooting.
Justin McCall had and Shawn Stith had 12 points apiece to pace the Roadrunners (7-18, 2-14). Cameron Smith had 11 points and Kaleb Higgins had 10.
The game was tight throughout, and anytime the Anteaters showed signs of pulling away, Bakersfield reeled them back in. UCI opened a 49-42 lead midway through the second half, but the Roadrunners got back within 51-48 on a Justin Edler-Davis layup with 6:31 left.
UCI answered with a 10-1 run, pushing its lead to 61-49 on a Davis jumper with 3:42 left, but Bakersfield made one more push. A McCall layup started a 9-0 Bakersfield run with the Roadrunners cutting the margin to 61-58 on his dunk with 53.5 seconds left.
Davis drove down the lane for a layup with 36 seconds left, then Hohn added a free throw with 23 seconds left to make it a six-point game. Bakersfield got a Higgins 3-pointer that cut the margin to 64-61 with nine seconds left, but Davis made a pair of free throws with two seconds left to cap the scoring.
“I’m obviously pleased to get a road win in March. Those are hard to get and credit to Bakersfield for how hard they fought on Senior Day,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “I thought our guys were much more in rhythm and focused than earlier in the week. We knew we had to rebound and take care of the ball and we did enough of that to win.
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“DJ had a great game. I thought Justin and DJ stepped forward in this game and we needed them too. We have a lot of weapons on this team, and I think we will be ready next week.”
UCI shot 46% overall (23 for 50) and 6 for 20 from behind the arc. Bakersfield shot 40.4% overall (23 for 57) but scored 13 second-chance points thanks to 12 offensive rebounds.
UP NEXT
UCI next heads to the 10-team Big West Tournament in Las Vegas. The Anteaters will open with a quarterfinal on Thursday, with the opponent and game time to be determined once all of the league games are finished later tonight.