Hopes of a three-game winning streak were dashed as the men's basketball team was defeated 67-78 by UC Irvine last Tuesday.

The Anteaters came out swinging and went on a 16-3 run early in the game.

"Basically our overall defense wasn't the way it's been for the last two wins. ... That hurt us there big time. ... It was mainly our defense that hurt us in that game, that hurt us during that run," said senior guard Cervante Burrell.

Unfortunately, Seattle U's offense struggled to click as well.

"Offensively, we had an off night that game. The starting five, the bench, everybody was missing point-blank lay-ups. It was an overall bad offensive night," Burrell said.

The Redhawks have a slight size advantage over UCI but they were still out-rebounded by the Anteaters 49-52, contributing to the loss.

"Size doesn't always equate to rebounding, they just did a better job of going to get the ball," said head coach Cameron Dollar.

"[UCI] really came out and played physical, being a smaller team than us," said senior forward Eric Wallace. "They really stepped up to the challenge of being the more physical team off [the] jump. It took us a couple possessions to really catch on to that and by that time they had established the lead. We got back into it, we never gave up but they were determined to be the more aggressive team."

The game was within reach until about four minutes left in the second half, where a jumper by Chris McNealy gave UCI an 11-point lead. Fouls and turnovers by the Redhawks allowed the Anteaters to hold them off for the rest of the game.

"[UCI] came out there aggressive and we just got bullied around. We don't want that to happen for anymore games. ... We need to be the aggressor and be the bullies," Burrell said.

"Mentally we just came in a step late across the board," Wallace said. "We could have done a lot of things differently. I just think we came into the game a half step late and before we knew it the game was out of our reach a little bit."

The Saturday after the loss, the Redhawks were back in the gym for a three-hour practice but Dollar's decision to have such a long practice was not a result of the loss.

"[Losing to UCI] didn't influence it at all, we just won two of our last three games," Dollar said. "Though [we lost] one game, we're playing better, we're doing some of the things we need to do. We just need to continue to keep improving. I was excited with how hard the guys practiced but [the practice schedule was] designed beforehand."

The team is preparing for its next game against Arkansas State.

"We're just doing the same stuff we've been doing all year, nothing special," Dollar said. "I think we'll come out and play well [against Arkansas State]. We're excited to go out and play and have some fun. I think it'll be a good game for us."

The Redhawks play Arkansas State at KeyArena this Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7:10 p.m. Fans who wish to support the team can take RedZone buses, which will begin departing from campus two hours before the game.

Rosalie may be reached at rcabison@su-spectator.com