This was a five-aspirin headache of an outing.

Leading by 15 points in the second half, the UC Davis women’s basketball team suddenly struggled on defense, eventually finding itself on the short end of a 68-59 defeat by visiting UC Irvine.

After using their normal, smothering defense to carve out a 28-27 first-half lead before 1,317 on Thursday’s first game of a men’s/women’s doubleheader at The Pavilion, the Aggies looked for all the world like winners with 13:35 left in the Big West Conference showdown.

Junior wing Blair Shinoda started a 19-5 second-period UCD run, first hitting a 3-pointer, then scoring inside off a nifty Hannah Stephens dish.

Hana Asano continued the Aggie rush with an assist to a driving Stephens just before a 360-degree move to the hoop gave Shinoda her seventh point of the just-hatched half.

Stephens, Brianna Salvatore and Samantha Meggison kept the hammer down, but, poof!!!

Just like that, back came the Anteaters.

“Well, you know, in a single game, there are going to be things you do well,” Aggie coach Jennifer Gross told The Enterprise. “There are going to be things you need to improve on, too.

“There were stretches in this game where we played some of our best basketball of the season.”

Then there were the final 13 minutes …

With her team trailing, 47-32, former Oregon State guard Kassandra McCalister pulled up for long trey, then another. Irvine’s McCalister invited her teammates to get on board by providing assists to Methlyn Onogomuho, Kelly Meggs and Kiara Belen.

Now within five points of UCD, Anteater coach Mary Goodenbour called off her women’s full-court press but they continued to peck away.

Aggie Courtney French buried a three to stall the comeback at 50-43, however, UCI would close out the night with a 25-9 avalanche. The game-changing sequence started with 3:38 remaining.

Still behind, 56-53, Irvine provided Belen with a good look inside. Belen, holding a five-inch height advantage on Asano, went hard to the hoop, missed her shot but picked up the foul.

Belen hit her first charity toss, missed the second — and by the time players on both teams hot-potatoed the rebound, guess who controlled, set up and fired a good three? Yep, pesky ol’ McCalister.

She was brilliant, scoring 29 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. The 5-foot-9 Sunnyvale native was 6-of-12 from beyond the arc and dished out four assists — all within 145 seconds in the second half.

The peculiar four-point play put the ’Eaters ahead, 57-56, and UCD slipped into submission.

The shorter Aggies, playing without post Lauren Juric (sprained ankle), were outboarded, 44-34. Gross, however, didn’t think Irvine’s length had much to do with the outcome.

“We let a couple of their kids get loose,” Gross explained. “McAlister had a good game — she put them on her back. I give her credit.”

The surprising Anteaters improved to 11-13 overall and 7-4 in the all-important BWC standings. UCD (14-8) is now 6-4 and sitting in fourth place behind front-running Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly and UCI. Thursday marked the second Aggie loss to Irvine (60-54 on Jan. 7).

Meggison paced the locals with 17 points, 11 rebounds a couple of assists. Shinoda and Stephens each added 13 points as both schools hit 38 percent from the floor.

Gross said her team chatted at length about that lost defensive intensity in the second half. She thinks her women will rededicate themselves to getting stops — the foundation of the Aggies’ offense.

Next up for UCD is a 1 p.m. Saturday home outing against UC Riverside (5-17, 3-7), a 70-53 loser to the Ags last month. The game is part of another doubleheader as the Aggie men face Long Beach State at 4 p.m.

Notes: Brilliant defense by Kasey Riecks, Stephens and Asano early in the game kept the locals from falling behind early. While UCD was missing nine of its first 11 shots, the defense kept things close at 16-10 halfway through the first period. ”Our defense fuels our offense,” a disappointed Shinoda said after the game. “We need to get back to focusing on getting those stops. We’ll stick to our goals. Get back to what we need to be doing — we need to get back to sticking to defense.” … There was a moment of silence before tipoff for Renne Lyra Morrow, the 19-year-old Aggie Marching Band-Uh member who died Tuesday of injuries from a weekend accident. … In other Big West games Thursday, Pacific beat UC Riverside (63-46) and UC Santa Barbara pounded Fullerton, 52-36.

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at [email protected] or (530) 747-8047.

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UCD senior Samantha Meggison clears space to get off a shot during the Aggies’ 68-59 loss to UC Irvine on Thursday at The Pavilion. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

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