UCI’s historic season ends in 73-54 loss to Oregon, but Anteater fans show pride in their team

UCI Coach Russell Turner talks to his players during Friday’s opening round game against Kansas State. (Photo Duke Burchell, Courtesy UCI Athletic Comunications)

The 13th-seeded UC Irvine men’s basketball team had its historic season come to an end with a 73-54 loss to No. 12 seed Oregon in the NCAA Round of 32 Sunday evening in the South Regional at SAP Center in San Jose.

The Anteaters concluded the season with a school record 31-6 mark, while the Pac-12 Tournament champion Ducks improve to 25-12.

Oregon shot 52 percent from long distance, knocking down 13 of 25. UCI went 5-18 (27.8 percent) for three-pointers and had its school record 17-game winning streak snapped.

Robert Cartwright scored 14 points and Evan Leonard added 11 points for UCI. Tommy Rutherford was 5 of 5 in field goals and wound up with 10 points.

Jonathan Galloway, UCI’s all-time leading rebounder, finished with nine points and 11 rebounds. Elston Jones also had nine rebounds.

Oregon, which moves on to face Virginia, had four players in double figures led by Peyton Pritchard with a game-high 18 points and seven assists. Luis King had 16 points followed by Ehab Amin with 12 points off the bench going 4-4 from long range. Kenny Wooten posted seven blocks to go with his 11 points.

Oregon held a 35-23 halftime lead but UCI scored the first 14 points to start the second half, including a 3-pointer by Cartwright to start it off to move out to a 37-35 lead.

However, the Ducks went on a 9-3 run to take a 50-40 lead with 8:19 remaining and opened up a 64-47 lead with 3:19 remaining.

UC Irvine concluded a remarkable campaign with a school-record 31 victories and the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win Friday over No. 4-seeded Kansas State. (Please click here to see the game story and pictures).

The Anteaters put together a program-best 17-game winning streak. Sunday’s game marked just their second setback in the 2019 calendar year.

UCI returns to campus Monday at noon.

A number of UCI fans took to Twitter Sunday night to express how proud they were of their team.

-Courtesy UCI Athletic Communications