Devin Tillis’ career night propels UC Irvine past Pepperdine – Orange County Register

On By Pranco

IRVINE – UC Irvine basketball coach Russell Turner has been singing the praises of Devin Tillis for a few years now, crediting the redshirt senior for his selflessness and commitment, for the smart plays he makes and the careless mistakes he avoids.

Tillis spent a few hours Saturday night displaying all of those traits, scoring a career-high 25 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as UCI pulled away to beat Pepperdine 80-62 at the Bren Events Center.

Tillis shot 10 for 12 from the field and 3 for 3 from 3-point range.

“After I missed that first layup, my teammates told me to keep going, so I stayed the course,” Tillis said. “Coach Turner kept telling me to play hard on defense, but that will happen for me on offense too, and that’s exactly what happened. To be honest, I felt some magic coming on tonight. Besides, I just followed the game plan. Coach Turner puts me in a position to succeed and as long as I keep doing what he gives me to do, I’m going to do it, and it’s working.”

Tillis’ big night was the result of the 6-foot-4 forward adding to the things he normally does on both ends of the field.

“I looked at the stats and saw Devin had 25 points and I couldn’t believe it because all I kept seeing was Devin doing what Devin always did,” Turner said. “He made three of three (3-point range), and I thought he was really good against Pepperdine’s post-doubles when they came. I’m really proud of Devin because I don’t think he’s gotten this kind of attention for the role he plays.

UCI trailed by double digits several times in the first half, Pepperdine (1-2) scored 16 straight points to open a 20-9 lead and still led by that margin (27-16) by 8: 35 to go. Six straight points from Tillis sparked a 13-2 UCI run and the Anteaters tied the score on a Jurian Dixon 3-pointer with 4:57 left.

UCI trailed 35-33 at halftime but took control with another 13-2 run, including three-pointers from Andre Henry, Tillis and Torian Lee, for a 55-44 lead with 12:32 remaining. Pepperdine cut the lead to single digits a few times after that, but a 3-pointer by Justin Hohn gave the Anteaters a 62-50 lead with 8:40 left and they led by double digits the rest of the evening. The UCI’s five-man substitutions kept the hosts fresh against an injury-ravaged Waves bench.

“I feel good about winning the way we did, wearing the team down with our depth and athleticism and I think that’s what happened,” Turner said. “I thought their two best guys controlled the game in the first half, but we wore them down and they struggled in the second half, both offensively and defensively. I don’t know if we were that locked into what we wanted to achieve to start the game, and sometimes that’s what it takes.

UCI center Bent Leuchten had eight points and a career-high 15 rebounds on a night as the Anteaters (4-0) defeated the Waves 48-29. Hohn added 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals on a rough shooting night (4 for 15 overall, 1 for 6 from behind the arc).

Myles Che also had 11 points, going 8 for 8 from the free throw line and leading the Anteaters’ perfect night at the line (14 for 14). Henry added seven points, three rebounds and two assists.

Stefan Todorovic had 17 points to pace Pepperdine, while Boubacar Coulibaly had 14 points, six rebounds and a career-high five blocked shots. Moe Odum had 12 points and eight assists.

UCI shot just 40.6% from the field, but was 10 for 25 (40%) from 3-point range and held the Waves to 38.3% overall and 5 for 20 from behind the arc.

“We gave Pepperdine some confidence (in the first half) because we didn’t finish shots around the basket and missed some open shots that we normally make, but I want to credit our second unit,” Turner said. “Those guys were ready. I thought Jurian was great and I thought Torian was great in his minutes. We got contributions from a lot of guys.”

NEXT

The Anteaters begin a stretch of four straight road games with a trip to Ogden, Utah for a matchup against Weber State on Friday at 6:00 PM PT.

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