Game Notes in PDF

GAME #16
UC Irvine (7-8, 1-1) at Cal Poly (6-6, 2-0)  
Saturday, January 5, 2013 – 7:00 p.m.
Mott Gym (3,032) – San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Series Record:  UCI leads 21-19
Last Meeting:  Cal Poly won 77-74 (2/11/12 in SLO)

Radio:  KUCI/88.9 FM (Mark Roberts, 19^th Season)

Audio / Video / Live Stats


UC IRVINE FACES MUSTANGS SATURDAY NIGHT

● Third-year head coach Russell Turner's UC Irvine squad (7-8, 1-1 Big West) completes the Central Coast swing Saturday night at Cal Poly.

● The Anteaters have played 10 of their first 15 games away from home and have four of the next six on the road.

● Saturday night marks the 41^st meeting in the UCI-Cal Poly series.  The Mustangs have won five of the past seven against the Anteaters.  Cal Poly won the last meeting, 74-71, at Mott Gym last Feb. 11, but UCI won the previous three meetings in San Luis Obispo.

● UCI is coming off a 74-71 loss at UC Santa Barbara Thursday night.  The 'Eaters built a 13-point lead during the first half and led 37-32 at the break, but the Gauchos hit four threes in the first 3:10 of the second half and went on to hit 13 of 26 for the game.  Alan Williams' three-point play with 7.1 seconds left proved to be the game-winning points.

● Senior Daman Starring led UCI with 21 points at UCSB, hitting 5 of 9 threes.  Freshman point guard Alex Young scored a career-high 18 points and added five rebounds and four assists.  Senior post Adam Folker recorded 10 points and six boards.

● UCSB shot 49.1 percent from the field, the highest percentage by a UCI opponent this season.

● UCI opened Big West play with a 69-58, overtime win over UC Davis Saturday night at the Bren Center.  The Anteaters outscored the Aggies, 11-0, in the extra session.   The victory gave UCI a 4-2 record in the month of December. 


UC IRVINE NOTES

● UCI is 6-0 this season when holding the opposition to under 60 points and 5-1 when leading at halftime.

● As of Friday (of 345 NCAA Division I teams) UCI ranked 12^th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (.367), 16^th in assist/turnover ratio (1.38), 21^st in assists per game (16.8), 43^rd in rebound margin (+6.3), 48^th in three-point field goal defense (.296) and 50^th in blocked shots (4.9).

● UCI ranks first in the Big West Conference in scoring defense (63.2), field-goal percentage defense (.367), three-point field goal percentage defense (.296), blocked shots per game (4.9) and assists per game (16.8).

● Senior Daman Starring is the only UCI player averaging in double figures at 14.0 points per game, leading the team in scoring in eight games this season.  He ranks second in the Big West in three-point field goal percentage at .484 on 30 of 62. 

● Starring has hit 21 of 42 field goals in the past three games and 14 of 23 (.609) threes in the past four contests.  He has averaged 19.3 points over the last three games.

● Freshman point guard Alex Young ranks second in the Big West with an assist/turnover ratio of 2.7 on 54 assists and 20 turnovers.

● Senior post Adam Folker is 37 of 56 (.661) from the field in the last seven games.  He ranks third in the Big West in field-goal percentage this season at .571 and he is 10^th in rebounding at 6.6.

● Folker has averaged 12.5 points in the last four games.  He has 510 career rebounds as he recently became the 18^th member of the UCI 500-rebound club.

● Sophomore post Will Davis II ranks second in the Big West in blocked shots with 29 for a 2.1 average per game with a season-high five against Liberty (11/19/12) and San Diego Christian (12/4/12).

● Senior Michael Wilder has 887 points and 472 rebounds in his UCI career.  Twenty previous UCI players have scored 1,000 career points.

● Wilder ranks No. 4 in UCI history with 181 career threes and senior Daman Starring is 13^th with 110.  Michael Hunter is the school's career leader with 236 threes.


A LOOK AT CAL POLY

● Fourth-year head coach Joe Callero's Mustangs are 6-6 overall and 2-0 in the Big West.

● Cal Poly is coming off a 79-73 win over conference preseason favorite Long Beach State Thursday night.  Senior guard Dylan Royer scored 17 points, hitting 5 of 8 threes. Redshirt freshman guard Reese Morgan added 16 points, junior guard Kyle Odister scored 12 points and freshman forward Brian Bennett 11.

● The Mustangs opened Big West play with a 58-48 win at UC Riverside Dec. 29.

● Junior forward Chris Eversley leads the Mustangs in scoring and rebounding at 15.0 points and 7.5 boards per game.

● Royer is averaging 10.2 points and junior guard Jamal Johnson leads the Big West in assist/turnover ratio at 2.9.