GAME #32

UC Irvine (23-8, 12-3) at UC Riverside (14-17, 5-10)
Saturday, March 5, 2016 – 2:00 p.m.
SRC Arena (2,753) – Riverside, California

Series Record:  UCI leads 36-24
Last Meeting:  UCI won 84-68 (1/9/16 in Irvine)

Radio:  KUCI/88.9 FM (Michael O'Sullivan)


Audio / Video / Live Stats


REGULAR-SEASON FINALE IN RIVERSIDE:  UC Irvine (23-8, 12-3) travels to UC Riverside (14-17, 5-10) Saturday afternoon for the regular-season finale.

The Anteaters clinched the No. 2 seed for next week's Big West Conference Tournament with a 72-62 win over Cal Poly Thursday night.  UCI could earn a share of the regular-season title with a win Saturday and a loss by Hawai'i to Long Beach State.

The Big West Tournament is next Thursday through Saturday (March 10-12) at the Honda Center in Anaheim and UCI will play in the 6:00 p.m. game Thursday against the No. 7 seed TBD.

Coach Russell Turner's Anteaters have won 13 of their last 16 games entering Saturday's contest.

The team's 23 wins this season tie for the second-most in the program's history.  UCI has won 88 games in the last four seasons, including 47 Big West games.


THE SERIES:  UCI leads the series with UC Riverside, 36-24, including an 84-68 win at the Bren Events Center Jan. 9.

Junior guard Luke Nelson scored a career-high 29 points in that victory, hitting 10 of 15 shots.  Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye added 12 points while junior guard Jaron Martin scored 11.

Jaylen Bland led the Highlanders with 20 points.


UC IRVINE NOTES

● Senior forward Mike Best scored 19 points to help lead UCI over Cal Poly, 72-62, at the Bren Events Center Thursday on Senior Night.  Senior guard Alex Young added 14 points and five assists while junior center Mamadou Ndiaye had 13 points and four blocked shots.  Junior guard Luke Nelson registered 12 points and six assists.

● The Anteaters shot 65 percent from the field in the second half of the win and 56.9 percent for the game.

● UCI, 23-8 overall, has registered its fourth straight 20-win season for the first time in history.  This is the ninth time that the Anteaters have recorded 20 wins in the 51-year history of the program.

● With a 12-3 league mark, UCI has won 47 Big West games in the past four seasons.

● As of Friday morning, UCI ranks ninth in the nation (of 351 teams) in field-goal percentage defense (.387), 17th in blocked shots per game (5.4) and 39th in scoring defense (65.6).

● Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye is 13th in the nation in total blocks (77) and 20th in blocked shots per game (2.48), which leads the Big West.

● Senior guard Alex Young is 19th in assist/turnover ratio at 3.27, which leads the Big West for all games.  He has 10 games this season with no turnovers.

● In the Big West statistics, for all games, UCI ranks No. 1 in field-goal percentage defense (.387) and blocked shots (5.4 per game).

● In conference games only, UCI leads the league in field-goal percentage (.476), field-goal percentage defense (.386), three-point field goal percentage (.407), rebounding margin (+2.9), assists per game (15.7) and blocked shots per game (5.8).

● 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 16-0 this season when the opposition shoots under 40 percent from the field.  The Anteaters have won 52 of their last 54 games when limiting the opponents to under 40 percent from the floor.

● UCI is 11-2 in the Bren Events Center this season and has won 47 of its last 57 home games (.824).

● Senior point guard Alex Young, who tied his career high with nine assists in the Feb. 24 win over Long Beach State, has a school-record 548 in his career to rank seventh in Big West Conference history.

● Young has 146 steals in his career to rank fourth in UCI history.  He has recorded at least two steals in 13 games this season. Young, in his third year as a team captain, is 14th on the Anteater career list with 117 threes.

● Young currently ranks 16th in UCI history with 1,232 points.  He scored a career-high 36 points on 14-of-19 shooting in the Feb. 13 win over CSUN.  

● Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye has 208 career blocked shots to tie for third in Big West Conference history.  He is tied with Will Davis II for the UCI career record.

● Ndiaye is 31 of 43 (.735) from the field in the last six games, averaging 14.5 points in that span.

● Ndiaye, who is tied for the Big West lead with five double-doubles this season, tied his career high with 14 rebounds in last Saturday's win at UC Davis.  He was named Big West Player of the Week after adding 17 points and four blocked shots in the Dec. 12 win at Utah State.

● Ndiaye has 507 rebounds and 820 points in 79 career games.  He is the 22nd player in UCI history to grab 500 boards.

● Junior guard Luke Nelson became the 26th player in UCI history to reach 1,000 points last month and he now ranks 23rd with 1,114 in his career.  Nelson, who had 25 points in the Feb. 24 win over Long Beach State, has five 20-point games this season and seven in his career. Nelson is 69 of 78 (.885) from the free-throw line in all games this season to lead the Big West.

● Nelson is fifth in Anteater history with 185 threes and sixth with 341 assists. He tied his career high with 10 assists in the Feb. 17 win at Fullerton.  Nelson 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).

● Nelson tied his career high with four steals against UC Davis last Saturday and is eighth in UCI history with 105 career thefts.

● Senior forward Mike Best has averaged 13.2 points in the last four games.

● Senior guard Dominique Dunning, who had a career-high six assists in the win over CSUN Feb. 13, has 23 assists and just seven turnovers in his last 17 games.

● Junior post Ioannis Dimakopoulos ranks second on the team with 30 blocked shots, including a career-high six in the Jan. 27 win at CSUN.

● Junior guard Jaron Martin is second on the team with 48 threes this season and ranks 19th in UCI history with 97.

● Senior guard Aaron Wright had a season-high six assists in the Feb. 17 win at Fullerton and added 12 points.

● Redshirt freshman forward Jonathan Galloway had a career-high three blocked shots in the Feb. 13 win over CSUN and he pulled down a team-high eight rebounds at Hawai'i Feb. 11 for the second-most in his UCI career.

________________________________________________________

For UC Irvine Athletics ticket information, please call (949) 824-5000 or e-mail athletics.tickets@uci.edu. For more information click here.

For information on how you can help support UC Irvine Athletics, please call (949) 824-6933 or e-mail aaf@uci.edu. For additional information, click here.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and by downloading the UCI Front Row app, available free to all Anteater fans through iTunes and Google Play, to view schedules, results, and up-to-the-minute news.