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Sun September 07, 2008

Darren Fells had his first double-double of the seaon with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

UC Irvine Holds Off UC Santa Barbara 66-63

Sanders leads Anteaters with 16 points

Jan. 10, 2008

IRVINE, Calif. --- Senior forward Patrick Sanders scored a game-high 16 points to lead UC Irvine past UC Santa Barbara, 66-63, in a Big West Conference game at the Bren Events Center Thursday night.

Junior guard Brett Lauer tied his career high with 14 points and senior center Darren Fells had 12 points and 13 rebounds as the Anteaters improved to 6-9 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Alex Harris led the Gauchos (12-4, 1-2) with 15 points while Ivan Elliott and Paul Roemer scored 12 apiece.

UCI led 64-52 on a three-pointer by Lauer with 5:53 remaining but UCSB forced the Anteaters into six turnovers down the stretch, the last two leading to five points in a 20-second stretch and culminated by a three from D. J. Posley that cut the margin to 64-63 with 1:10 left.

Sanders missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 13.3 seconds remaining and UCSB set up for the last shot, but Harris turned the ball over on the right baseline with two seconds left and fouled Sanders, who hit a pair of free throws with .7 second left on the clock for the final result.

UCI hit 8 of 16 three-pointers in the game, including 5 of 7 in the second half. The Gauchos converted 10 of 21 threes, including 7 of 13 in the final 20 minutes. The Anteaters, who led 34-28 at halftime, shot 49.1 percent from the field in the game while UCSB shot 46 percent. UCI out-rebounded the Gauchos 35-26.

The Anteaters recorded 10 steals in the game, four by Big West Conference leader Kevin Bland.

UCI hosts Cal Poly Saturday night at 7:05 at the Bren Center.