IRVINE \u2014 Freshman guard Tama Isaac had his second career double-double and senior forward Kyle Evans kept swatting away shots in UC Irvine\u2019s 78-62 victory over Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Bren Events Center.<\/p>\n
Isaac had 14 points and a career-high 13 assists to go with six rebounds as the Anteaters (16-7 overall, 9-2 Big West) won their fourth straight game and remained alone atop the conference standings, a half-game ahead of Hawaii (16-5, 8-3). Evans had 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting to go with seven rebounds and four blocked shots, giving him a nation-leading 79 for the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you win a conference game, you move forward and take that and get ready for the next one,\u201d UCI coach Russell Turner said. \u201cWe know we have a big game in the next one at Santa Barbara. I didn\u2019t think our team was as spirited as I expected after a layoff, so there were some things that really concerned me with what I saw, but I know that happens from time to time throughout a long season. It\u2019s good to win while not playing our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison Carrington finished with 11 points and eight rebounds, Andre Henry had 11 points and three steals, and Derin Saran added 10 points for UCI, which shot 41.4% from the field, just 2 for 15 from 3-point range and 18 for 31 from the free-throw line (58%).<\/p>\n
The Anteaters made up for their own shooting woes by holding Bakersfield (8-16, 2-10) to 35.5% shooting overall and forcing 19 turnovers. They outscored the Roadrunners 44-24 in the paint and had an 18-8 advantage in fast-break points.<\/p>\n
UCI trailed by six midway through the first half but forged a 27-27 tie, then used a 10-0 run to open a 39-29 lead by halftime. The Roadrunners\u2019 Ronald Jessamy scored five straight points to cut the Anteaters\u2019 lead to 45-40 early in the second half, but the UCI defense settled down, eventually holding Bakersfield scoreless for more than four minutes while opening a 57-46 lead with 8:40 left.<\/p>\n
Isaac and UCI kept the Roadrunners at arm\u2019s length from there and closed out the win, after which he credited his teammates for his big night.<\/p>\n
\u201c[My teammates] just make it so much easier for me when they run the lanes, so credit to them and thanks to them,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was obviously a team effort. We all contributed in our own ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jessamy had 18 points and 12 rebounds and Dailin Smith also added 18 points to lead Bakersfield, which has lost seven straight.<\/p>\n
Turner expects a better showing from his team when the Anteaters visit third-place UCSB (15-8, 8-4) on Saturday night for a nationally televised game at the Thunderdome.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that the calendar\u2019s switched to February, we need to raise our level to compete for a conference championship, but I didn\u2019t feel like that showed up very well on the floor today,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThere\u2019s an emotional component to each matchup, and the emotions will be high in front of a big crowd on national TV on Saturday. I expect our team will be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
UC Irvine heads to UCSB on Saturday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.<\/p>\n
BIG WEST STANDINGS<\/p>\n
Through Thursday, Feb. 5<\/p>\n
Team \u2013 Overall, Big West<\/p>\n
UC Irvine \u2013 16-7, 9-2<\/p>\n
Hawaii \u2013 16-5, 8-3<\/p>\n
UC Santa Barbara \u2013 15-8, 8-4<\/p>\n
UC Davis \u2013 14-9, 7-5<\/p>\n
Cal State Northridge \u2013 14-10, 7-5<\/p>\n
UC San Diego \u2013 16-8, 6-6<\/p>\n
Cal State Fullerton \u2013 11-13, 6-6<\/p>\n
Cal Poly (SLO) \u2013 9-15, 5-7<\/p>\n
Long Beach State \u2013 8-16, 4-8<\/p>\n
UC Riverside \u2013 8-16, 3-9<\/p>\n
Cal State Bakersfield \u2013 8-16, 2-10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVINE \u2014 Freshman guard Tama Isaac had his second career double-double and senior forward Kyle Evans kept swatting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,29668,4213,1327,127,44177],"class_list":{"0":"post-166660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news","11":"tag-big-west-conference","12":"tag-college-basketball","13":"tag-college-sports","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uc-irvine-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}