IRVINE — Andre Henry isn’t just proving he’s 100% healthy. He showed he might be better than ever on Saturday night.

Henry put the UC Irvine men’s basketball team on his back in the first half against Cal State Fullerton in their Big West Conference matchup and then let his teammates carry the Anteaters across the finish line in an 86-65 victory at the Bren Events Center.

Henry made all eight of his field-goal attempts and finished with 19 points off the bench, his highest-scoring game since producing 23 points against UC Riverside in a 73-66 win on Dec. 28, 2023.

“Andre’s here for his sixth year and performing like this down the stretch, and leading like he is, showing toughness and passion for what he’s doing,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “There couldn’t be a better representative of Anteaters than Andre.”

Henry sustained a season-ending knee injury nine games into last season. When this season rolled around, the shooting guard still wasn’t back to the same level he was at when he won Big West Defensive Player of the Year in the 2023-24 season.

He came off the bench for the 22nd straight game against the Titans and played in his 137th game overall at UCI, which leads the NCAA for active games played at the same school.

Henry had been building toward this performance, averaging 13.5 points over the previous six games.

Harrison Carrington contributed 18 points off the bench, Jurian Dixon scored 15, Derin Saran had 12 points, and Kyle Evans made his first five shots before finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season for UCI (17-9 overall, 10-4 Big West), which had lost two in a row, but is now back in a tie atop the standings with Hawaii (18-6, 10-4).

“We’ve got to have a lot of guys playing well together, and we haven’t had as much of that for a couple games,” Turner said. “I don’t feel like we exhibited an underdog mentality for a couple of weeks and, hopefully, we can respond continually like we did after we lost two in a row and got embarrassed.”

Landon Seaman scored 14 points off the bench and Bryce Cofield added 11 points in a reserve role as the only players in double figures for Fullerton (13-14, 8-7), which had won five of its previous six.

“They’re a good team,” Turner said of the Titans. “They’ve really done a fine job this year, Coach Dedrique Taylor and their group.”

The Anteaters, who were outrebounded 51-40 in a 79-73 loss at Cal Poly on Thursday, finished with a 42-27 advantage on the boards against the Titans.

UCI trailed by as much as eight points in the first half before taking a 41-32 lead into intermission.

Henry came off the bench and made all six of his shots in the first half, scoring 14 points.

The Titans scored the first five points of the game before an 8-0 run gave UCI its first lead at 10-8.

The Anteaters left the 6-foot-7 Seaman open on the perimeter in the first half and he shot 3 for 8 from 3-point range before finishing 4 for 10 for the game.

After he sank a second-chance 3-pointer, Christan Williams followed with another 3-pointer to give Fullerton its biggest lead of the first half at 22-14 with 10:43 remaining.

Evans, who continues to lead the nation in blocked shots at 3.4 per game, blocked a shot by Joshua Ward and that led to a 3-on-1 break the other way, which Carrington finished with a three-point play to cut the deficit to 22-19.

Dixon and Ward traded 3-pointers before the Anteaters unleashed an 11-0 run, capped by a deep two-pointer from Henry to give them a 33-25 lead with 2:27 left in the half.

Henry made his sixth straight shot without a miss, a 3-pointer that gave UCI its first double-digit lead at 40-30 with 42 seconds left before halftime.

After the Anteaters kept Fullerton from getting any closer than seven early in the second half, Henry checked back in with 15:36 left and his drive to the basket extended the lead to 61-46 with 11:39 to go. Jovan Jester Jr. made a 3-pointer with 8:18 remaining to extend the lead to 20.

“We raised our defensive level,” Turner said. “We performed well in transition in this game after the first few minutes. We rebounded and we had a bunch of guys make plays, which we can have. That’s the key to our team’s ability to reach our ceiling.”

UP NEXT

UC Irvine at Long Beach State, Thursday, 7 p.m.

UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton, Thursday, 7 p.m.

BIG WEST STANDINGS

Through Thursday, Feb. 14

Team – Overall, Big West

Hawaii – 18-6, 10-4

UC Irvine – 17-9, 10-4

UC Santa Barbara – 17-9, 10-5

Cal State Northridge – 16-10, 9-5

UC Davis – 16-10, 9-6

UC San Diego – 18-9, 8-7

Cal State Fullerton – 13-14, 8-7

Cal Poly (SLO) – 11-16, 7-8

Long Beach State – 8-18, 4-10

UC Riverside – 8-19, 3-12

Cal State Bakersfield – 8-18, 2-12

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