Box Score

 

IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine took control in the second half in defeating UC Davis, 74-46, in the Big West Conference regular-season finale Saturday at the Bren Events Center.

With the win, the 'Eaters captured the Big West title outright and the third regular-season championship in program history.  UCI won the title outright in 2001 and shared the crown in 2002 (with Utah State).

The top-seeded 'Eaters (22-10, 13-3) will face No. 8 seed UC Riverside in a quarterfinal game of the Big West Tournament Thursday at 6:00 p.m. at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

It was Senior Day at the Bren as Chris McNealy was honored prior to the game and the guard from Danville scored 10 points.

Junior forward Will Davis II led the 'Eaters with a game-high 14 points and nine rebounds. 

Freshman guard Luke Nelson and redshirt sophomore Mike Best added 10 points apiece.  Best was 5 of 6 from the field.  Sophomore guard Aaron Wright registered eight points, hitting 6 of 6 free throws.

Freshman center Mamadou Ndiaye pulled down eight rebounds and junior post John Ryan had six.

Nelson and Ryan had four assists each while sophomore guard Alex Young and freshman guard Jaron Martin had three apiece.

Corey Hawkins and Georgi Funtarov led UC Davis (9-22, 4-12) with nine points each.

UCI, which led 35-28 at halftime, shot 63 percent from the field in the second half and held the Aggies to just 14.8 percent in the final 20 minutes.

The 'Eaters blew the game open to start the second half with a 24-6 run in the first 11 ½ minutes to go up 59-34 on a three from Travis Souza with 8:27 remaining.

UCI outscored UC Davis, 42-16, in the paint and outrebounded the Aggies, 48-26.  The 'Eaters had 12 blocked shots in the game.

UCI shot 46.7 percent from the field for the game and UC Davis 26.4 percent as the 'Eaters improved to 20-0 this season and 12-0 in Big West games when holding the opponents to under 40-percent shooting.

UCI is 15-0 when limiting the opposition to less than 60 points and 18-3 when winning the battle of the boards.

The 'Eaters have won nine of their last 10 games, and 15 of their past 18 heading into the Big West Tournament.  UCI is 26-5 in its last 31 games in the Bren Center.

"I'm happy for these guys, especially Chris McNealy," fourth-year UCI head coach Russell Turner said.  "It's not easy to win a conference championship in college basketball and it has been fun to part of that.  You hope you can do it and it is satisfying in working with guys and reaching a goal.

"UC Davis is in a tough spot.  They don't have many guys (nine) and they fought hard.  We have so many guys who can make plays and have unselfish natures and courage.

"We have a bigger goal in front of us in the coming week," Turner added.

 

 

               Senior Chris McNealy was honored prior to Saturday's victory at the Bren Center.

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