UC Irvine holds off Cal State-Fullerton 63-58

FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) Will Davis II had 21 points with seven rebounds and UC Irvine held off Cal State-Fullerton 63-58 on Thursday night.

Irvine (9-8, 2-1 Big West) was up 42-26 at the half and stretched the lead to 17 early in the second but went scoreless between Mike Best's layup at 17:19 and Alex Young's jumper with 7:49 left.

The 9 1/2-minute drought allowed Fullerton (8-9, 0-2) to get within 49-44 on Alex Harris' free throw at the 10:09 mark. Fullerton hung around, but didn't get any closer until Harris capped a 6-0 run to close the gap to 59-56 with 1:57 left.

Irvine's Davis and Fullerton's Lanerryl Johnson quickly traded baskets to make it 61-58 and both teams went scoreless until Young's free throws for Irvine capped the scoring with 12 seconds left.

Harris scored 17 and Johnson 14 for the Titans.