IRVINE — Faced with some formidable early season adversity, the UC Irvine men’s basketball team is showing it’s still the team to beat in the Big West Conference.

The Anteaters proved that again on Saturday night against visiting UC Riverside, overcoming another slow start before taking their first lead early in the second half and then storming away for an 81-57 victory at the Bren Events Center.

“This was a tough week with three hard games, two on the road to start and then this one at the end of the week,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “That challenges any team, especially one that’s been through what we’ve been through with the injuries and everything else, so I’m pleased with that.”

Irvine, which has won or shared seven of the past 11 Big West regular-season titles, outscored the Highlanders 52-22 in the second half while shooting 64% from the floor.

“I’m excited for all these guys because there is a belief that shows up when we have second-half performances like that,” Turner said.

UCI lost starting guard Andre Henry, the reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Year, to a season-ending knee injury early last month. Langston Redfield, a key reserve guard for the Anteaters, went down with a season-ending knee injury the game before.

Supported by one of the best backcourts in the conference, Riverside was looking to take advantage.

The Highlanders entered the game as the only 3-0 team in the Big West after knocking off Long Beach State on Thursday, but Irvine and San Diego now share that distinction.

In a matchup of two preseason all-Big West guards, Justin Hohn and Barrington Hargress each led their teams in scoring, but Hohn had a better supporting cast.

Hohn scored 17 points, while Myles Che added 16 points and seven assists and Devin Tillis finished with 14 points and eight rebounds for UCI (13-2 overall, 3-0 Big West).

Hargress scored 20 points, but was the only player in double figures for the Highlanders (10-6, 3-1).

“They’re a championship team. They turned on their physicality,” UCR coach Mike Magpayo said of the Anteaters. “Our whole deal was, ‘We’ve got to stay with it, we’ve got to stay with it and keep coming,’ and I just thought we started taking bad shots and, really, what was disappointing was the defensive rebounding.”

The Anteaters took their first lead 42-41 with 15:21 left in the game on a 3-pointer by Tillis, who missed his first six shots of the game.

Bent Leuchten then hit another 3 in transition to extend the lead to 45-41 with 14:56 to go.

UCR starting center Joel Armotrading went to the bench with his third foul in the opening minute of the second half and Kaleb Smith followed after picking up his third with 16:10 remaining.

“It got us out of rhythm a little bit because we really did want to play through Kaleb,” Magpayo said. “He had to sit a lot of that first half after he banged two 3s early to give us a lead.”