UC Irvine beats Cal Poly 96-78 in Big West Conference Tournament semifinals

By Canadian Press on March 15, 2025.

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Bent Leuchten had 21 points in UC Irvine’s 96-78 victory against Cal Poly on Friday in the Big West Conference Tournament semifinals.

UC Irvine, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, will face top-seeded UC San Diego in Saturday’s championship game.

Leuchten added 10 rebounds for the Anteaters (28-5). Devin Tillis scored 17 points while going 7 of 10 from the field and added eight rebounds and six assists. Justin Hohn shot 5 for 9 (2 for 6 from 3-point range) and 3 of 3 from the free-throw line to finish with 15 points.

Mac Riniker finished with 22 points and six rebounds for the Mustangs (16-19). Cal Poly also got 15 points from Jarred Hyder. Peter Bandelj finished with 11 points and five assists.

Leuchten scored nine points in the first half and UC Irvine went into halftime trailing 39-38. UC Irvine used a 10-0 run in the second half to build a 21-point lead at 93-72 with 2:44 left before finishing off the win.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press