Riverside surprises Anteaters

RIVERSIDE — Sitting four games beneath UC Irvine in the Big West Conference men’s basketball standings, the UC Riverside Highlanders showed they were battling for more than the eighth and final berth in the postseason conference tournament Wednesday.

“We’re battling for a lot of things,” said Riverside first-year coach Jim Wooldridge, whose Highlanders showed plenty of fight in an 85-76, home triumph over the Anteaters before 366 spectators at the Rec Center.

“We want to be more respected in this conference,” Wooldridge said of the motivation fueling his team (6-17, 3-9 in conference). “We want to move up in the standings. And we want to be able to talk about Riverside basketball with a real sense of pride.”

Meanwhile, UCI Coach Pat Douglass was wondering what happened to the sense of purpose for his team (11-14, 6-6), which came in having won three of its last four, including its first two conference road wins.

“We were hoping we could build on [the recent success] and get back home [with another road win],” said Douglass, whose squad ended its regular-season road schedule with a 3-14 record in games not played on campus this season.

UCI came into the contest in fifth place, hoping to make gains on UC Santa Barbara and Pacific, which were tied for third at 8-4, before UCSB defeated UOP, 60-53, Wednesday.

Now, UCI remains 1½ games behind Pacific for the coveted fourth-place spot, which comes with a bye in the conference tournament.

After playing host to Idaho in the annual BracketBuster game Saturday night, UCI gets Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UC Davis, and Cal State Fullerton at home to close out its regular season. Among those, only Long Beach lost to UCI on the road.

UCI began digging its hole early Wednesday. The Anteaters trailed, 4-0, then, after trailing, 9-6, watched the hosts score 12 straight points.

The Riverside lead got as high as 18, before the hosts settled for a 37-21 advantage, collecting 11 of there 15 first-half field goals within six feet to finish shooting 53.6% from the field before intermission.

“We got to the rim a lot,” Wooldridge said. “We need to do that, because we’re not a very good shooting team.”

Douglass, like his players, showed visible signs of frustration in the first half. He went to a zone, called numerous timeouts, and substituted liberally, trying to find a way to snap his team out of its funk.

Marcus McIntosh was three for five from the field in the first 20 minutes, but the rest of the UCI starters were a combined three of nine and all nine Anteaters who played contributed to the team’s 11 first-half turnovers.

UCI was seven of 20 from the field in the first half, including missing all four of its three-point attempts.

Three-pointers nearly carried the visitors back into it, as junior guard Brett Lauer connected on seven of his nine three-point tries after intermission on his way to a career-high 25 points in 24 minutes off the bench.

Senior center Darren Fells had 11 of his 19 points after the break, while sophomore point guard Michael Hunter collected all 13 of his points in the final 20 minutes.

After virtually trading baskets the first six minutes after halftime, three Lauer threes helped UCI put together a 13-6 run that trimmed the deficit to 56-48 with 10:12 left.

Five points inside by Fells, as well as a pair of three-pointers by Hunter, led a 13-2 UCI run that brought it within 63-61 with 5:40 left.

Lauer’s sixth second-half thee ball brought the ’Eaters within 70-69 with 3:09 left.

But a three-point play by junior Aaron Scott followed to spark a 7-0 UCR run and the hosts converted 10 of 12 foul shots in the final 88 seconds to thwart UCI’s bid to extend the game by fouling.

“To UCI’s credit, they came back,” Wooldridge said. “We couldn’t guard Fells inside and the three-point line, so they made some threes on us. But, to our credit, we kept making plays. It wasn’t as pretty in the second half for us, but I’m very proud of the way our guys found a way to make free throws and just keep making plays.”

Wooldridge called UCI one of, if not the hottest team in the conference, heading into Wednesday, but the final road game left the Anteaters with a familiar chill.

UCI shot 65.5% in the second half to finish 53.1% from the field (26 of 45, including nine of 15 from threedom).

But UCR outrebounded the visitors, 34-20, and made 63.6% of its second-half field-goal tries to finish 58% from the field (29 of 50).

Big West Conference

UC Riverside 85, UC Irvine 76

UCI – Sanders 8, DeCasas 5, Fells 19, McIntosh 6, Hunter 13, Lauer 25.

3-pt. goals – Lauer 7, Hunter 2.

Fouled out – Bland, Sanders.

Technicals – None.

UCR – L. Cunningham 21, Soto 13, Barlow 10, Scott 9, Diggs 6, Gates 10, Creppy 8, Visman 4, S. Cunningham 4.

3-pt. goals – L. Cunningham 2.

Fouled out – Soto.

Halftime – UCR, 37-21.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.