Game Notes in PDF
GAME #34
#4 UC Irvine (19-14) vs. #1 Long Beach State (19-12)
Friday, March 15, 2013 – 6:30 p.m.
Big West Conference Tournament Semifinal
Honda Center (17,608) – Anaheim, Calif.
Series Record: LBSU leads 57-34
Last Meeting: UCI won 72-69 (3/2/13 in Irvine)
Radio: KUCI/88.9 FM (Mark Roberts, 19th Season & Steve Henkle)
TV: ESPNU/ESPN3 (Mark Jones & Miles Simon)
Audio / Live Stats
'EATERS FACE 49ERS IN BIG WEST TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL FRIDAY NIGHT
● Third-year head coach Russell Turner's fourth-seeded UC Irvine squad (19-14) faces No. 1 seed Long Beach State (19-12) in a Big West Conference Tournament semifinal game Friday night at 6:30 at the Honda Center.
● The teams split during the regular season, with Long Beach State winning 81-59 at the Walter Pyramid Jan. 26 and UCI claiming a 72-69 victory at the Bren Center Mar. 2. This is the 92nd meeting in the series with the 49ers holding a 57-34 lead.
● Tonight marks the 10th time that UCI and Long Beach State have met in the Big West Tournament, with the 49ers leading the tourney series, 5-4.
● UCI is making the program's 31st appearance in the Big West Conference Tournament. The 'Eaters are 22-30 in previous league tourney games, advancing to the championship game in 1988, 1994 and 2008. UCI, seeded No. 7 in last year's tournament, defeated second-seeded Cal State Fullerton, 65-59, before losing to top-seeded Long Beach State, 68-57, in the semifinals.
'EATERS TOP WARRIORS
● An intense defense from the opening tip and six players in double-figure scoring lifted UC Irvine over Hawai'i, 71-60, in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal at the Honda Center Thursday night.
● UCI has won seven of its last eight games and nine of the past 12.
● UCI (19-14) held the Warriors to just five points in the opening 11 ½ minutes of Thursday night's game as the 'Eaters streaked to a 24-5 lead in that span.
● Sophomore Will Davis II scored all 13 of his points in the opening 20 minutes as UCI led 44-22 at the break. The 'Eaters are 14-3 when leading at halftime this season
● Hawai'i (17-14) opened the second half with an 11-0 run to cut the deficit in half, but the 'Eaters maintained a double-digit lead for the entire half in winning their 19th game of the season, the most for the program since finishing 20-9 in 2002-03.
● Senior Michael Wilder had 12 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth career double-double, sophomore Travis Souza scored 11 points, and senior Daman Starring, junior Chris McNealy and freshman Alex Young added 10 points each.
● The 'Eaters shot 58 percent from the field in the opening half and held Hawai'i to just 26.5 percent in taking control.
● UCI cooled off to 25 percent in the second half and shot 40 percent for the game while the
Warriors hit 35 percent of their shots in the game in becoming the 17th UCI opponent to shoot under 40 percent this season when the 'Eaters are 12-5.
● UCI outrebounded the Warriors, 40-38, and UCI is 12-4 this season when winning the battle of the boards.
UC IRVINE NOTES
● UCI's 19 wins are the most for the program in 10 years, since the 2002-03 team finished 20-9 overall.
● UCI has won seven of its last eight games, and nine of the past 12, entering tonight's game.
● The 11 conference wins this season for the 'Eaters were the most for the program since the 2002-03 team finished 13-5 in league play.
● UCI was 12-1 at home this season, including 9-0 in Big West games, as the Anteaters went undefeated at home in conference play for the first time since the 2000-01 team went 8-0 in league games at the Bren Center en route to the program's first Big West regular-season title.
● UCI is 9-0 this season when holding the opposition to under 60 points and 14-3 when leading at halftime. UCI is 12-5 this season when the opponents have shot below 40 percent from the field and 12-4 when outrebounding its opponent.
● Daman Starring, the only UCI player averaging in double figures at 13.2 points per game, became the 22nd member of the 1,000-points club at UCI last week at Pacific. He enters tonight's game with 1,022 career points.
● Starring has 146 career threes and passed Scott Brooks for No. 7 in the Anteater record book at UC Davis last Saturday. Starring is 13th in UCI history with 93 career steals.
● Senior Michael Wilder has 1,050 points and 580 rebounds in his UCI career. His 580 career boards rank 16th in Anteater history. He became the 21st member of the 1,000-points club at UCI and Wilder is one of 16 UCI players to have scored 1,000 points and grabbed 500 rebounds in their careers. He has eight career double-doubles.
● Wilder has hit 24 threes in the past nine games. His 217 career threes rank third in UCI history, trailing just Michael Hunter (236) and Ross Schraeder (233).
● Wilder ranks No. 12 in UCI history with 264 career assists.
● As of Friday, Wilder ranks 46th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio at 2.27.
● Sophomore post Will Davis II, with 81 blocked shots this season, has established a new single-season school record, breaking the previous mark of 55 he set last season. He tied his single-game school record with eight in the Mar. 2 win over Long Beach State.
● Davis has 136 career blocks in 63 career games as he zeroes in on the school record of 149 rejections by Adam Parada from 2000-04. Davis ranks 22nd in the nation as of Friday in blocked shots with an average of 2.53 per game.
● Freshman point guard Alex Young, with 134 assists this season, has the most assists in a season by a UCI player since Aaron Fitzgerald had 190 in 2005-06. Young's 134 assists are a UCI freshman single-season record.
● Young ranks 18th nationally as of Friday in assist/turnover ratio at 2.58.
● Senior post Adam Folker, with 604 career rebounds, ranks No. 12 in UCI history and is the latest addition to the school's 600-rebounds club.
● Folker leads the Big West in field-goal percentage at .581 for all games on the season.
● Folker has not played in the last three games due to a leg injury sustained in practice Mar. 6. He was in uniform for last night's game.
● As of Friday, UCI ranked 14th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (.385), 16th in assists (15.9), and 32nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.26).
● Through last night's games, UCI ranks first in the Big West Conference in field-goal percentage defense (.385), three-point field goal percentage defense (.327), scoring margin (+4.5), rebounds per game (39.3), assists per game (15.9) and in blocked shots per game (4.5).
● Individually for all games, Adam Folker leads the Big West in field-goal percentage (.581) and he is fifth in offensive rebounds per game (2.7). Will Davis II tops the league in blocked shots per game (2.5), and Alex Young is second in assist/turnover ratio (2.6) and third in assists per game (4.1). Daman Starring is sixth in three-point field goal percentage (.420), seventh in three-point field goals made per game (2.1) and eighth in free-throw percentage (.786). Michael Wilder is eighth in three-point field goals made per game at 2.0.
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