UCI Coach Russell Turner Postgame Interview

IRVINE, Calif. --- Senior guards Jaron Martin and Luke Nelson combined for 50 points Saturday night as UC Irvine topped CSUN, 83-80, in the Anteaters' Homecoming game before 4,234 at the Bren Events Center.

With the win, UCI, 17-13 overall and 10-4 in the Big West Conference, remains tied for first place in the league with UC Davis heading into the final week of the regular season.

The 'Eaters travel to UC Riverside Wednesday night for a 7:00 game (ESPN3) before hosting UC Davis on Senior Day next Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (Prime Ticket) in the Bren Center.

Martin scored 28 points Saturday evening, hitting 6 of 11 threes, in recording his ninth 20-point game of the season.  His six treys give him 176 in his career as he moves into sole possession of sixth place all-time at UCI.

Nelson hit 3 of 6 threes and scored 22 points as he now has 236 career triples to tie Michael Hunter (2006-10) for the top spot in Anteater history.  Nelson, who has 1,417 career points for eighth in the UCI record book, had five assists in Saturday night's victory.

Senior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos added 12 points while sophomore forward Jonathan Galloway pulled down 12 rebounds, marking the eighth time this season he has hit double digits in boards.

Galloway scored six points, as did freshman forward Tommy Rutherford, who snared six rebounds.

Kendall Smith led the Matadors (11-16, 7-7) with 24 points, Darin Johnson scored 19 and Aaron Parks 13.

The Anteaters never trailed in the game and led 45-38 at halftime on the strength of 14 points from Nelson and 13 by Martin in the opening 20 minutes.

UCI built its largest lead of the night at 11 points on two occasions in the second half, the last coming at 62-51 on two free throws by freshman center Brad Greene with 13:42 remaining.

CSUN didn't fade and closed the gap to one point at 79-78 on a pair of free throws from Johnson with 1:02 left.

Dimakopoulos answered with two foul shots with 38 seconds remaining to extend the lead to 81-78.

Parks connected on two free throws with four seconds left to pull CSUN within one again at 81-80 before Martin nailed a pair of foul shots with two seconds remaining for the final tally.

Both teams hit 24 of 53 field goals in the game for 45.3 percent.  UCI hit 9 of 19 threes to just 2 of 12 by CSUN.  The Matadors were 30 of 39 from the free-throw line while the 'Eaters were 26 of 32.

UCI had a 37-27 advantage on the boards in winning at home for the 36^th time in the last 43 games in the Bren Center.

"It was a great crowd tonight," UCI head coach Russell Turner said.  "Probably the difference in the game was the crowd and the energy that they gave us to stay at it and grind out a tough win.  That was a fun night of college basketball for everybody here.  Northridge played well and lost a tough game."

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