IRVINE, Calif. -- Vanguard men's basketball faced the Anteaters of the University of California Irvine Wednesday night in an exhibition matchup.  The Lions fell 81-58 in the final preseason contest before the Blue and Gold officially open the season on November 12.  Anthony Tello paced VU with 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field.   
 
What Happened?  Tello deposited six of the first eight Vanguard points, giving the squad leads of 4-2 and 8-7 over the opening five minutes, with Bryson Metz sinking a jumper for the other two points.  Free throws by Leonard Turner gave VU a 10-7 lead and a swish inside the arch for Micah Swartz increased the advantage to 12-7 with 14:16 left in the first.  Chris Chiles buried another mid-range shot a couple of minutes later to propel Vanguard to its largest lead of the night at 14-7, but UCI countered swiftly after that.  The Anteaters rattled off a 16-4 run over the next 10 minutes to swing out to a 23-18 edge and they would never trail again.  Vanguard led for 5:40 in the meeting and only cut the gap to 10 points once during the second half.
 
VU shot 32.4% from the floor in the game and converted threes at a 21.7% clip.  Vanguard made 5-of-6 free throws, though they were out-chanced from the charity stripe 23-6.  UCI held a 47-32 lead in rebounds, but the Lions had a positive 13-11 edge in offensive boards. 
 
Turner posted 10 points to end second in scoring on the team, converting three free throws and a 3-for-10 mark from the field.  Metz was third with nine points, making four of his 11 shots on the floor.  Turner also paced the lineup with seven rebounds, with Tello next with four.  Metz had four assists to top the VU chart, with Aibigho Ujadughele next with two.  Carson Frawley went 2-of-3 from downtown to lead the Lions in three-point shooting and concluded the night with eight points.  Jadyn Johnson had four points, as he made both of his shots from the field and picked up a rebound in nine minutes of action.  Ujadughele and Tello each had a block and Devin Carson picked up three steals.  Tello, Metz, and Pape Cisse each had two swipes.