IRVINE — The last team to beat the UC Irvine men’s basketball team at the Bren Events Center did it again on Saturday night.

UC San Diego made a barrage of 3-pointers in the second half of its Big West Conference showdown against the Anteaters and that proved too big a mountain for Irvine to climb.

UCI’s program-record 22-game home winning streak came to a crashing end with an 85-67 loss to UCSD.

“Now we’re tied with San Diego with eight to go and, hopefully, we can compete for a championship and earn the opportunity to play these guys again,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “If we do, we’ll be better than we were tonight.”

The Anteaters’ last loss at home came on Feb. 23, 2023, a 99-91 defeat at the hands of the Tritons.

UCI came in with the stingiest 3-point defense in the Big West at 31.3 percent, but UCSD shot 16-for-31 from beyond the arc, including 13-for-20 in the second half.

“Credit to San Diego, they outplayed us, outshot us,” Turner said. “They shot it at a rate in here that we may not have seen. That may be a record for a half. I haven’t seen or felt that here.”

Bent Leuchten scored 23 points to lead UC Irvine (20-4 overall, 10-2 Big West). Myles Che and Devin Tillis contributed 13 points each.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who came in averaging 19.9 points for UCSD, finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Chris Howell shot 5-for-8 from 3-point range and scored 15 points and Nordin Kapic shot 3-for-4 from long range and also scored 15 points for the Tritons (20-4, 10-2).

The Tritons sank nine of their first 12 attempts from 3-point range in just over 10 minutes to start the second half, extending a two-point lead to 17.

Irvine managed to get back within nine points with 5:29 left, but Tait-Jones followed with another 3 to push the lead back to 12 and the Anteaters never got back within single digits.

The Tritons took a 32-30 lead into halftime after leading for most of the first half.

Howell, who averages 5.9 points, made three 3-pointers in the first 3:18 to help the Tritons to an early 11-5 lead.

“Every guy that shot a 3 for them made one, so they obviously were really ready,” Turner said.

Irvine received a break when Tyler McGhie, who averages 17.3 points for the Tritons, went to the bench with his third foul with 8:21 left in the first half.

Myles Che made both free throws following McGhie’s exit to cut the lead to 19-18 and the Anteaters eventually moved ahead 23-22 when Tillis passed the ball out to Justin Hohn for a 3-pointer with 6:16 left in the half.

After Kapic went to the bench with his third foul with 5:40 left in the first half, Leuchten tipped in his own miss to move UCI back ahead 30-28 with 3:45 left, but those would be the final points of the first half for the Anteaters.

Irvine shot just 36 percent from the floor in the opening half, compared to 48 percent for the Tritons.

Tait-Jones, who came in third in the Big West in scoring and leading the nation in free throws made (161) and attempted (199), was held to six points in the first half on 2-for-7 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line. He also committed four of the Tritons eight turnovers.

Che made two 3-pointers early in the second half before McGhie picked up his fourth foul on a three-point play by Jurian Dixon with 17:29 left in the game, giving UCI a 39-37 lead, but Hayden Gray picked up the scoring slack with a pair of 3-pointers, and Howell made another to put the Tritons ahead 46-41.