GAME #27
UC Irvine (19-7, 8-2) at Cal State Fullerton (9-15, 2-9)
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 - 7:00 p.m.
Titan Gym (4,000) - Fullerton, California
Series Record: CSF leads 52-50
Last Meeting: UCI won 72-59 (1/20/16 in Irvine)
Radio: KUCI/88.9 FM (Michael O'Sullivan & Steve Henkle)
TV: ESPN3 (Trent Schlom, Richie Schueler & Courtney Sweet)
Audio / Video / Live Stats
ORANGE COUNTY CLASH: UC Irvine (19-7, 8-2) faces Cal State Fullerton (9-15, 2-9) Wednesday night at Titan Gym in the 103rd meeting of the series.
UCI trails in the series, 52-50, but the Anteaters have won the last eight meetings, including 72-59 at the Bren Events Center Jan. 20. Junior guard Jaron Martin had career highs of 22 points, six threes and six rebounds in the victory.
BEST START IN 15 YEARS: UCI, 19-7 overall, is off to the program's best start since the 2000-01 team was 23-3 after 26 games en route to a 25-5 record.
ALEX YOUNG DROPS 36 ON MATADORS: Senior point guard Alex Young scored a career-high 36 points in Saturday night's 93-84 win over CSUN, hitting 14 of 19 field goals.
Young, whose previous career high was 24, scored the most points by a UCI player in over 12 years.
HAWAI'I IN THE HOUSE SATURDAY NIGHT: Big West leader Hawai'i will be in the Bren Events Center Saturday night (8:30, ESPNU). The Rainbow Warriors hit 14 threes in last Thursday's 74-52 win over the 'Eaters in Honolulu.
UCI is 9-1 in the Bren Center this season and has won 45 of its last 54 home games (.833).
UC IRVINE NOTES
● As of Tuesday morning, UCI ranks ninth in the nation (of 351 teams) in field-goal percentage defense (.381), 16th in blocked shots per game (5.5) and 35th in scoring defense (65.0).
● Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye is 12th in the nation in total blocks (64) and 20th in blocked shots per game (2.46).
● Senior guard Alex Young is 19th in assist/turnover ratio at 3.32.
● In the Big West statistics, for all games, UCI ranks No. 1 in scoring defense (65.0), field-goal percentage defense (.381) and blocked shots (5.5 per game).
● In conference games only, UCI leads the league in field-goal percentage defense (.369), three-point field goal percentage (.390), rebounding margin (+3.1) and blocked shots per game (6.3).
● UCI is ranked No. 21 this week in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll.
● UCI has won 57 of its last 59 games when holding the opposition to 60 points or less, including 9-0 this season.
● UCI is 14-0 this season when the opposition shoots under 40 percent from the field. The Anteaters have won 50 of their last 52 games when limiting the opponents to under 40 percent from the floor.
● Sixth-year head coach Russell Turner earned career win No. 100 with the Anteaters in UCI's 80-62 victory over Norfolk State Dec. 22 to claim the championship of the Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational in El Paso, Texas. Turner is currently 109-87 at UCI, including 84-48 since the start of the 2012-13 season.
● Senior point guard Alex Young has 517 career assists in his career to become the 12th player in Big West history to reach 500. He has nine games this season with no turnovers.
● Young has 141 steals in his career to rank fourth in UCI history. He has recorded at least two steals in 12 games this season. Young, in his third year as a team captain, is tied for 17th on the Anteater career list with 109 threes.
● Young currently ranks 20th in UCI history with 1,180 points after his 36-point performance last Saturday night.
● Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye has 195 career blocked shots to rank fourth in Big West Conference history.
● Ndiaye, who is tied for the Big West lead with five double-doubles this season, pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds in wins at Utah State (Dec. 12) and Pacific (Dec. 4).
● Junior guard Luke Nelson became the 26th player in UCI history to reach 1,000 points earlier this month. He has 1,038 career points and is averaging 14.9 points in Big West games. He has four 20-point games this season and six in his career. Nelson is 53 of 58 (.914) from the free-throw line in all games this season.
● Nelson is fifth in Anteater history with 173 threes and eighth with 306 assists. He and Alex Young are two of the four players in UCI history to record 1,000 career points and 300 assists (Jerry Green and Ben McDonald).
● Senior forward Mike Best has averaged 7.5 rebounds in the last four games, pulling down eight in four of the past seven contests.
● Senior guard Dominique Dunning, who had a career-high six assists in the win over CSUN Saturday night, has 20 assists and just three turnovers in his last 12 games.
● Freshman forward Brandon Smith is 8 of 15 from the field in Big West games.
● Junior post Ioannis Dimakopoulos has 12 blocked shots in the last five games, including a career-high six in the Jan. 27 win at CSUN.
● Junior guard Jaron Martin is second on the team with 36 threes this season.
● Senior guard Aaron Wright had a season-high five assists in the Feb. 3 win at Cal Poly.
● Redshirt freshman forward Jonathan Galloway, who had a career-high three blocked shots in Saturday's win over CSUN, pulled down a team-high eight rebounds at Hawai'i last Thursday, the second-most in his UCI career.
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