Box Score Anaheim, Ca—The UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team's 2016-17 season came to an end Thursday evening at Honda Center in the Quarterfinals of the Big West Conference Tournament as the Highlanders dropped a 76-67 decision to #1 seed UC Irvine.

UCR jumped out to a 7-5 advantage, but the Anteaters scored nine straight to take a lead they would never relinquish.

The 'Eaters held UC Riverside to 29.6 percent shooting in the first, controlling the paint to the tune of a 16-6 advantage. Big West player of the year Luke nelson led all scorers with 14 points in the first, but the Highlanders held the rest of the Anteaters to 24 points on nine of 25 shooting from the field

Irvine increased its lead to 14 points early in the second, but UCR put together an 10-2 run with 13:54 to go to breathe new life into the team, and slice the lead to six.

With just over 10 minutes remaining in the second period, Johnson drained a jumper in the lane to make it a five-point game 53-48, and after Alex Larsson took a charge, Johnson scored again to decrease the deficit to three.

That was as close as the Highlanders would get, however, as UCI scored the next six points en route to the nine-point victory.

Johnson finished with a team-high 22 points, while Nelson and Jaron Martin paced the Anteaters with 19 apiece..