HONOLULU — Luke Nelson had 16 of his season-high 29 points in the second half and UC Irvine cruised to a 72-58 win over Hawaii on Saturday night.
Nelson was 6 of 10 from 3-point range, Ioannis Dimakopoulos added 11 points and Jonathan Galloway grabbed 11 boards to go with four points. The Anteaters (15-12, 8-3 Big West) moved alone into second place in the conference standings, a half-game behind UC Davis (8-2).
UC Irvine kept its lead between 11 and 19 in the second half and finished with a 39-22 edge on the boards.
Gibson Johnson had 19 points and Noah Allen scored 18 for the Rainbow Warriors (12-12, 6-5), who had a 14-4 lead to start the game. The Anteaters responded with a 23-2 run and led 35-20 at halftime.
Sheriff Drammeh added 12 points, but Hawaii got no bench points compared to UC Irvine’s 22.