IRVINE — The comeback seemed destined for a happy conclusion.

With a 3-pointer from Dawon Baker, the UC Irvine men’s basketball team had whittled a 22-point second-half deficit to four with less than two minutes left. The home crowd, which minutes earlier had been watching a blowout, came to life. A UC San Diego turnover gave the Anteaters the ball back.

But Pierre Cockrell’s inbounds pass was intercepted by UCSD’s Roddie Anderson III, leading to a foul and free throws on the other end. That stalled the momentum and the Anteaters ran out of time in a 99-91 loss to the Tritons on Thursday night at the Bren Events Center, as their five-game win streak came to an end.

“We just threw the ball to them, and they went down and scored on us,” said UCI coach Russell Turner, whose first-place team dropped to 20-9 overall and 13-4 in Big West Conference play. “That was a huge momentum play that they made and we did not make. That was the story of the game.”

Baker had a career-high 33 points, the highest scoring output for any UCI player this season. DJ Davis, returning after being sick and missing Monday’s narrow win at Cal Poly, added 19 points.

UCI’s furious rally was aided by six UCSD turnovers in the last 2:30, with the Anteaters’ full-court press giving the Tritons plenty of trouble.

The Anteaters cut the lead to single digits with just over two minutes left on a 3-pointer by Baker. Turnover after turnover gave the hosts a lifeline, and Baker hit another 3-pointer to make it a four-point deficit with 1:34 left.

But UCSD (10-19, 5-12) made its free throws late, with Bryce Pope hitting his last 10 foul shots – all of which came in the final two minutes.

“We haven’t really been down like that our whole season, going into the half,” Baker said. “So it was good to see that we were able to fight back. It was just too late.”

The Tritons came into the night having lost six of their past seven games, and in ninth place in the Big West.

“They came in here and gave it to us, and hung 99 on us,” Turner said. “That hasn’t happened in our league that I can remember – a league team coming in here and putting 99 on us.”

UCSD shot 50% both overall and from 3-point range in the first half, at one point making six straight attempts from deep. Anderson had five 3-pointers in the half alone.

Anderson led UCSD with 25 points. Pope had 24 and Francis Nwaokorie added 22 with five 3-pointers.

UCSD opened a double-digit lead with less than six minutes remaining in the first half after consecutive 3-pointers, part of a 16-3 run that helped the Tritons stretch their cushion to 19 points.

UCI trailed by 17 at halftime. The Anteaters attacked the paint early, scoring their first six points from close range, but the Tritons answered with strong perimeter shooting. The Anteaters couldn’t match it, shooting 3 for 14 from 3-point range and 36% overall in the first half.

UCI has just a half-game lead over UC Riverside (20-10, 13-5) for first place and has a pair of challenging road games coming up – Saturday night at Hawaii (20-9, 11-6) and next Thursday at UCR. Third-place UC Santa Barbara (21-7, 12-5) is lurking one game back of the Anteaters.

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The Anteaters also came in leading the conference in opponents’ field goal percentage, holding teams below 40% shooting and 66 points per game. UCSD shot 48% from the field on Thursday and made 15 three-pointers.

“A lot of guys had big games for them and put up a lot of numbers,” Baker said. “If they play like that against any team, they are going to give a lot of teams trouble, so it just happened to be us this night.”

Baker, who finished in double figures for the 24th consecutive game, said that he felt the momentum switch when the second-half run began.

“If maybe we started that energy a little bit earlier in the half, it could’ve been different,” Baker said. “But it didn’t happen that way.”

Chazz Hutchinson started in place of Devin Tillis, who was out with a knee bruise on Thursday.

“We showed the heart and grit and determination at the end – when we were desperate – that we’ve shown at other times this year, and that we’re going to need to show if we want to win a Big West championship,” Turner said. “We just didn’t have enough of it today.”