IRVINE — The last team to beat the UC Irvine men’s basketball team at the Bren Events Center did it again on Saturday night.

UC San Diego made a barrage of 3-pointers in the second half of its Big West Conference showdown against the Anteaters and that proved too big a mountain for UCI to climb.

UCI’s program-record 22-game home winning streak came to a crashing end with a 85-67 loss to UCSD.

“Now we’re tied with San Diego with eight to go and, hopefully, we can compete for a championship and earn the opportunity to play these guys again,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “If we do, we’ll be better than we were tonight.”

The Anteaters’ last loss at home came on Feb. 23, 2023, a 99-91 defeat at the hands of the Tritons.

UCI came in with the stingiest 3-point defense in the Big West at 31.3%, but UCSD shot 16 for 31 from behind the arc, including 13 for 20 in the second half.

“Credit to San Diego, they outplayed us, outshot us,” Turner said. “They shot it at a rate in here that we may not have seen. That may be a record for a half. I haven’t seen or felt that here.”

Bent Leuchten scored 23 points to lead UCI (20-4 overall, 10-2 Big West), and Myles Che and Devin Tillis contributed 13 points each.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who came in averaging 19.9 points for UCSD, finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Chris Howell shot 5 for 8 from 3-point range and scored 15 points and Nordin Kapic shot 3 for 4 from long range and also scored 15 points for the Tritons (20-4, 10-2).

The Tritons sank nine of their first 12 attempts from deep in just over 10 minutes to start the second half, extending a two-point lead to 17.

UCI managed to get back within nine points with 5:29 left, but Tait-Jones followed with another 3-pointer to push the lead back to 12 and the Anteaters never got back within single digits.

“San Diego rose to the occasion better than we did,” Turner said.

The Tritons took a 32-30 lead into halftime after leading for most of the first half.

Howell, who averages 5.9 points, made three 3-pointers in the first 3:18 to help the Tritons to an early 11-5 lead.

“Every guy that shot a 3 for them made one, so they obviously were really ready,” Turner said.

UCI received a break when Tyler McGhie, who averages 17.3 points for the Tritons, went to the bench with his third foul with 8:21 left in the first half.

Che made both free throws following McGhie’s exit to cut the lead to 19-18 and the Anteaters eventually moved ahead 23-22 when Tillis passed the ball out to Justin Hohn for a 3-pointer with 6:16 left in the half.

After Kapic went to the bench with his third foul with 5:40 left in the first half, Leuchten tipped in his own miss to move UCI back ahead 30-28 with 3:45 left, but those were the final points of the first half for the Anteaters.

UCI shot just 36% from the floor in the opening half, compared to 48% for the Tritons.

Tait-Jones, who came in third in the Big West in scoring and leading the nation in free throws made (161) and attempted (199), was held to six points in the first half on 2-for-7 shooting and 2 for 2 from the line. He also committed four of the Tritons’ eight turnovers.

Che made two 3-pointers early in the second half before McGhie picked up his fourth foul on a three-point play by Jurian Dixon with 17:29 left in the game, giving UCI a 39-37 lead, but Hayden Gray picked up the scoring slack with a pair of 3-pointers, and Howell made another to put the Tritons ahead 46-41.

The Anteaters managed to tie the score at 46-all, but Tait-Jones scored on a drive and Gray, who came in leading the nation in steals (81), stole the ball in the backcourt and scored on a layup to extend the lead to 50-46.

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After the Anteaters threw another pass out of bounds, Justin Rochelin made a 3-pointer to match UCSD’s biggest lead of the game at 53-46 with 12:55 left.

Dixon ended the 7-0 run with two free throws, but the Tritons continued to pour in the 3-pointers on the other end.

Aidan Burke hit from long range on back-to-back possessions to give the Tritons their biggest lead at 59-50

Berk Can Akin then missed a wide-open 3-point attempt from the baseline for UCI and Kapic sank one on the other end to extend the lead to 62-50 with 10:49 remaining.

“In the second half, I didn’t think we were near as active,” Turner said.

UP NEXT

UCI hosts UC Santa Barbara on Thursday at 8 p.m.

BIG WEST STANDINGS

Through Saturday, Feb. 8

UC Irvine – 20-4, 10-2

UC San Diego – 20-4, 10-2

CS Northridge – 17-7, 9-4

UC Riverside – 16-9, 9-4

UC Santa Barbara – 16-8, 8-5

UC Davis – 14-10, 8-5

Hawaii – 13-11, 5-8

CS Bakersfield – 10-15, 4-9

Cal Poly (SLO) – 9-15, 3-9

Long Beach State – 7-18, 3-10

CS Fullerton – 6-19, 1-12