No. 2 UC Irvine (28-5, 17-3) took on No. 7 Cal Poly (16-19, 8-12) in the 2025 Big West Championship semifinal round in Henderson, Nev., on March 14. The Anteaters walked away victorious with their first Big West tournament win since 2023, trouncing Poly 96-78.
Irvine began the game with an empty possession and a missed three by sophomore guard Myles Che. Cal Poly returned the favor with a missed layup by freshman guard Peter Bandelj before Irvine senior center Bent Leuchten missed a pair of freethrows. Soon after the empty trips, Bandelj picked up where he left off in the Big West quarterfinal round with a catch-and-shoot three for the game’s first bucket.
UCI graduate guard Justin Hohn then banked in a three, and redshirt senior Devin Tillis hit a layup to get on the board for the first time of the evening. UCI extended its run as redshirt freshman guard Jurian Dixon found Leuchten on a slip pass for an easy layup.
The offense was cooking early in the Big West Championship’s latest matchup of the night as Cal Poly graduate guard Mac Riniker got inside for an easy two, tying the game at seven before a media timeout stopped play.
UCI junior forward Kyle Evans got the crowd going with a huge block of Cal Poly’s leading scorer, graduate guard/forward Owen Koonce. The ball ricocheted off Koonce after the rejection, giving Irvine possession. Unfortunately for UCI, Cal Poly’s defense stayed poised, forcing a shot clock violation on the ensuing possession. Bandelj then got the Mustangs into double digits with another three, continuing his scorching hot stretch from deep in the tournament.
Cal Poly graduate point guard Jarred Hyder also continued his solid stretch of play in the Big West Tournament, hitting a transition pull-up three. On the possession immediately after, Bandelj got to the line and hit both, giving Cal Poly a 15-9 lead.
However, Dixon answered back soon for Irvine with a catch-and-shoot three from the right corner, followed by an identical make by UCI freshman guard Torian Lee to tie the game at 15. As he had since day one of the tournament, Hyder made a tough shot to slow UCI’s momentum, this time a turnaround fadeaway jumper in the high post. Cal Poly senior guard Isaac Jessup followed with a tough bucket of his own, picking up his dribble near the block and hitting a contested floater.
Cal Poly’s offensive barrage continued with two deep threes by freshman guard Cayden Ward, giving the Mustangs their largest lead of the night at 25-17. Irvine responded with a post-up bucket by Tillis to end the Mustang run. UCI followed up by running the offense through Tillis again, setting up a high-low look to Leuchten, who was fouled deep in the post. Leuchten continued to be a focal point for UCI head coach Russell Turner’s offense, hitting a turnaround hook shot to cut Cal Poly’s lead to three with five minutes left in the half.
Leuchten got to the line again for the ‘Eaters, this time hitting both attempts. Irvine’s defense then forced a travel on Koonce and another on Riniker, pushing Cal Poly’s scoring drought to over three minutes.
A few buckets were traded before Hohn completed an and-one, tying the game at 35 with just over a minute to go in the half. Tillis then gave Irvine the lead, bouncing in a three from the top of the key.
The half ended with an empty UCI possession and a 39-38 lead for Cal Poly.
The second half opened with a clean slip pass to Riniker for an easy Mustang bucket, but Irvine quickly punched back with a Hohn catch-and-shoot three to tie the game at 41.
Tillis, Dixon and Leuchten got back-to-back-to-back easy looks at the rim, opening up a six-point Irvine lead. However, the points continued to come in flurries for both teams. A Hyder three and Riniker layup kept the Anteaters from running away with the game early in the second.
Immediately after the Poly buckets, Irvine’s offense woke up. A pair of Hohn freethrows, a Che three and a Leuchten hook shot ignited the Irvine crowd and pushed the Irvine lead to double digits for the first time of the night.
As they had been all week, the rims in Henderson were forgiving, as a Riniker three bounced around multiple times before dropping in to cut UCI’s lead back to single digits.
The threes began raining down in the desert, with Jessup, Lee, Bandelj and Dixon each hitting deep balls on four straight possessions. This gave Irvine an eight-point lead.
Hohn continued attacking the rim, slithering through a pair of defenders for a lefty layup to put UCI up 10 with nine minutes to go. Che then hit what would end up being the dagger for Irvine, a catch-and-shoot second-chance three from the top of the arc.
UCI coasted the rest of the way against the Mustangs, closing out the tournament’s Cinderella team 96-78.
Irvine dazzled from deep all night, finishing 50% from behind the arc against a team that had used its three-point shooting to defeat higher seeds all tournament long.
The Anteaters had six players in double figures — Lee trailed closely behind with eight points. New University asked Tillis about UCI’s philosophy on sharing the ball and ensuring all their playmakers could excel.
“We know that everyone on our team can make a play. We all have the capabilities and abilities to get a bucket,” Tillis said at the postgame press conference. “When you have a big guy like Bent [Leuchten], when he gets the ball [in the paint], they all kinda look at him, and it’s easy to get open shots for other people.”
Leuchten led UCI scorers with 21 points. In the first game of his final Big West Tournament, the German national also added four assists and had no turnovers.
Postgame, Turner spoke about what it feels like to get a chance to dance in the NCAA tournament with a victory against a UC San Diego team that recently beat them by 18 points at home.
“This is a big game for our community, and it’s a big game for the UCSD community too,” Turner said at the postgame press conference. “I think both teams obviously know we have a lot on the line. We’re looking forward to competing.”
Irvine’s victory sets up an ESPN2-televised matchup with No. 1 UC San Diego, with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line at 6:40 p.m. on March 15.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu.
Edited by Jaheem Conley