Men’s Basketball Unable to Hold Late Lead

Long Beach 85
UC Irvine 80
Cal State Long Beach’s guard Aaron Nixon ended the UC Irvine men’s basketball team’s season last year. On Thursday night, Nixon ended a chance for the Anteaters to grab a first round bye in the Big West Tournament.
After scoring just two first-half points, Nixon lit up the Anteaters for 20 points in the second half to give the 49ers an 85-80 comeback victory at the Walter Pyramid in UCI’s last conference game of the season.
UCI led by as many as 10 points late in the second half, 60-50, but was unable to hold the lead behind the flurry of three-pointers by Nixon.
‘[Nixon] went inside and he went outside and just took the game over,’ said UCI Head Coach Pat Douglass. ‘You can double a little bit but they have a lot of guys who can spot up and shoot the three.