IRVINE — Long Beach State and UC Irvine women’s basketball teams are in a battle for first place in the Big West Conference. They both brought 7-1 records into Thursday’s game at the Bren Event Center and their intentions to maintain their hold onto first place.

There are too many regular-season games left to decide who will finish atop the standings, but for one night, Irvine made a case with a 61-47 victory against Long Beach.

With the victory, the Anteaters (14-6, 8-2), inched ahead of Long Beach (7-3, 11-8) and Hawaii (7-2, 13-6). Hawaii played at UC San Diego on Thursday.

“I think every game we play there’s a lot play for,” Irvine coach Tamara Inoue said. “It’s early, though I think obviously we want to still be battling for first place. Amy (Wright, Long Beach coach) has done a phenomenal job at Long Beach, and they play so hard. So, we knew it was going to be a battle today, so we were ready for it.”

The teams will play again on March 1 in Long Beach, which could decide top seed for the Big West Tournament.

Long Beach, which is averaging a conference-best 70.6 points a game, stalled against the Anteaters’ nationally ranked defense. Irvine is ranked 18th in the country, holding opponents to 55.2 points a game.

As equally as impressive as their defense was the Anteaters’ offense, which got four players in double figures, led by Hunter Hernandez, who had 16 points, 11 rebounds for her fourth career. The junior guard also had two assists and one steal.

Deja Lee added 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range, while Nikki Tom had 11 points and four steals and Olivia Williams scored 10 points.

“The last couple of years we’ve been more known for our defense and then this year we have a lot more firepower,” Inoue said. “But we’ve really been pushing the defense side a little bit more, getting it back to what we know. I thought they did a really good job understanding the scouting and personnel and getting after it. Most importantly, our rebounding was a big key today.”

The Anteaters outrebounded Long Beach, 46-41.

The game stayed close until Irvine made a push in the third quarter. Holding a 35-32 advantage, Irvine went on a 10-3 run to push their lead to 45-35 with one second left.

Lee opened the final quarter with a 3-pointer to give the Anteaters an 11-point edge, their biggest lead of the game at that point. It was all they needed as Long Beach struggled to find the basket.

Long Beach was led by Jada Crenshaw’s 13 points and 11 rebounds and Lovely Sonnier’s 10. Rachel Loobie added seven points and seven rebounds.

Senior guard Savannah Tucker, who leads the conference in scoring at 15.8 points a game, finished with eight points on 3-of-10 shooting.

Wright, Long Beach’s coach, said they couldn’t break Irvine’s zone, which led to missed shots and turnovers. The Beach turned the ball over 21 times.

“They’re obviously a little taller, a little longer than us and they have some good athletes that can cover a lot of ground,” Wright said. “I just thought we worked all week on shot fake and ball fake, and we just really didn’t utilize that.”

Wright said she hopes for a different outcome when they meet again at The Pyramid.

“We came in last year and it was a close game and then back at our place last year, it was a close game,” Wright said. “So, we’ll make adjustments. I’m still playing a lot of young kids. They’re getting their feet wet, and we’re just trying to get better every day.”