IRVINE, Calif. --- Senior guard Alex Young erupted for a career-high 36 points to lead UC Irvine past CSUN, 93-84, in a Big West Conference game at the Bren Events Center Saturday night.
Young hit 14 of 19 shots, including 4 of 7 threes, in scoring the most points by a UCI player since Mike Efevberha scored 37 in an 84-67 victory over Arkansas-Monticello Dec. 6, 2003, in the McCaffrey Classic at Fresno.
Young added five rebounds and three steals Saturday evening as the Anteaters improved to 19-7 overall and 8-2 in the Big West.
"My teammates found me in great spots and I knocked down shots," Young said in a postgame interview.
Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye had 14 points, hitting 7 of 10 from the field, and added seven rebounds and three blocked shots.
Junior guard Luke Nelson scored nine points while senior forward Mike Best had eight points, eight boards and three rejections.
Senior Dominique Dunning registered a career-high six assists and had five points and four rebounds. Junior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos scored seven points and senior guard Aaron Wright six.
Kendall Smith led the Matadors (9-16, 4-7) with 21 points while Aaron Parks added 14 points. Tre Hale-Edmerson grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds and had six assists.
UCI, after shooting a season-low 31 percent in Thursday night's loss at Hawai'i, shot 54.5 percent from the field Saturday against CSUN. The Anteaters knocked down 8 of 14 threes to CSUN's 5 of 18. The 'Eaters outrebounded the Matadors, 49-37, and had 13 blocked shots in the game.
UCI shot 50 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes to take a 39-35 halftime lead as Young scored 13 points and Ndiaye 10.
Young then went for 23 points in the second half, including the Anteaters' first 10 in less than two minutes.
UCI opened the second half with an 18-4 run to go up 57-39 after a layup by Nelson with 15:32 remaining.
The 'Eaters maintained a double-digit lead throughout most of the second half until the Matadors cut the margin to single digits in the final 50 seconds.
UCI, which won at home for the 45th time in the past 54 games, is 13-0 this season when scoring at least 70 points and 14-1 when leading at halftime.
Coach Russell Turner's Anteaters travel to Cal State Fullerton Wednesday night for a 7:00 game against the Titans on ESPN3, then host Hawai'i next Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the Bren Events Center on ESPNU.
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