CORVALLIS, Ore. — UC Irvine shook off an abysmal start but never sustained enough momentum to avoid its first loss of the season on Saturday afternoon, falling to Oregon State, 67-55, at Gill Coliseum.
UCI, which fell behind by 12 points less than five minutes into the game, shot just 37% from the field, was outrebounded by double digits and turned the ball over 17 times in the loss.
UCI (9-1 overall, 1-0 Big West) tied its season high with 13 steals, scoring 25 points off of Oregon State’s 21 turnovers, but the Anteaters struggled to find consistent offense beyond that.
Justin Hohn was the only UCI player to score in double figures with 10 points. Devin Tillis added nine points and seven rebounds, while Myles Che had eight points and Torian Lee added eight points and four steals.
Damarco Minor had 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists to lead the Beavers (7-2). Michael Rataj added 13 points and Parsa Fallah scored 12.
Things went wrong from the outset for UCI. Oregon State used an 11-0 run to open a 14-2 lead just 4:47 into the game.
The Anteaters eventually settled down, with their defense providing a spark for the offense. They scored 18 points off of 12 Beaver turnovers in the first half and used a 7-0 run to pull within 21-19 with 7:30 left then tied the score at 30-all on a Che 3-pointer with 1:52 left. OSU led 34-30 at halftime.
Oregon State led 34-30 at halftime and put UCI in another double-digit hole early in the second half, using a 9-2 run to grab a 43-32 lead less than four minutes into the period.
UCI cut the margin to seven points twice, the last time at 54-47 with 9:04 remaining, but stingy defense on both sides left both teams reliant on free throws for much of the rest of the scoring.
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UCI, which had not lost since its first-round NIT game at Utah in March, shot 20 for 54 from the field, 6 for 20 from 3-point range and 9 for 12 from the free-throw line but was outrebounded 37-27.
Oregon State shot 24 for 52 (46.2%) from the field, 6 for 17 from 3-point range and 13 for 17 from the foul line.
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UC Irvine plays at Belmont on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. PT.