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SAN JOSE, Calif. - The 13th-seeded UC Irvine men's basketball team continued to make history on Friday afternoon as the Anteaters upset No. 4 seed Kansas State, 70-64, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at SAP Center.

With the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, the 'Eaters advance to the Round of 32 where they will face No. 12 seed Oregon on Sunday, March 24.

The Anteaters improve to 31-5 overall and extend their school-record winning streak to 17 games.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Max Hazzard and Evan Leonard led the way with 19 points each. Hazzard knocked down five 3-pointers, while Leonard had a team-high six rebounds and four steals
> Leonard was a perfect 9-for-9 at the free throw line setting a new UCI record for most consecutive free throws with 42 straight. The junior recorded two free throws at 12:25 of the second half to better previous record of 34 set by Johnny Rogers (1984-85)
>Elston Jones added 11 points and five boards, and Robert Cartwright finished with 10 points and three assists
>UCI out-scored K-State in the paint (24-14) and off the bench (19-9)
>The Anteaters held the Wildcats to just 37.3 percent shooting from the floor and 29.6 percent shooting from long range
> UCI shot 44 percent overall and 39.1 percent from behind the arc
>Kamau Stokes paced Kansas State with 18 points followed by Makol Mawlen with 14 points and game-high 12 rebounds

TURNING POINTS
FIRST HALF
>Evan Leonard started the scoring with a jumper at 19:39
>Kansas State hit back-to-back threes before Max Hazzard hit one of his own at 17:55, 6-5
>K-State would out-score UCI 7-2 before Elston Jones hit a basket in the paint to trim the margin to 12-9 at 14:27
>UCI trailed 17-9 before Robert Cartwright hit a three-pointer and Evan Leonard had a steal and Spencer Rivers dished him the ball for a layup on the other end at 12:03. Cartwright would lay in the next shot to get the Anteaters to 17-16 with 11:27 to go in the half
>The Wildcats would score the next nine to open a 26-16 advantage at 7:18
>UCI rallied on the strength of Jones in the paint as he would make a hook and get fouled, making the free throw at 4:50 then Hazzard would make a pair from the charity stripe at 4:21 (28-23)
>Jones would battle for a rebound and put it back at 3:41 then hit another at 3:07 forcing a Kansas State timeout, 28-27
>K-State's Mike McGuiri hit two free throws before Hazzard drained a three as time expired to cap the 12-2 run and send the teams in to the break tied at 30-30

SECOND HALF
>A Cartwright layup knotted the score at 35-35 (17:05) then following a Hazard triple and a Wildcat rebound put-back, Jones had a tip in at 15:52 to give UCI the lead 40-39 at 15:52
>Collin Welp found room for a turnaround hook in the paint to lead 42-41 at 14:38
>Kamau Stokes had a three-pointer to give K-State the 44-42 advantage before Evan Leonard made to from the free throw line, 44-44 (12:25) 
>The Wildcats would score the next five before Hazzard drained another from long range at 10:18 to creep within, 49-47
>Leonard would hit back-to-back threes, the last one as he was falling down to give UCI the 53-51 advantage at 8:29
>Cartwright would hit a three from the left corner (7:28) and Leonard would make three free throws to move the gap to 59-51 at 6:03
>Welp would put down a hook shot at 5:13 (61-53) then a Stokes three-pointer kept it close 61-56 at 4:28
>Welp would be fouled on the press break and make a pair from the line, 63-56 at 4:22
>Barry Brown would hit a three (4:01) for the Wildcats then UCI would turn the ball over on the other end. Following the media timeout, Kansas State Stokes would hit a jumper (3:15) to inch to 63-61
>Hazzard would knocked down a huge three with 1:26 to go
>The Wildcats answered with a three of their own (1:03) to keep it interesting, 66-64
>That would be the last basket of the game as a UCI missed layup was rebounded by the Wildcats, but they threw the ball out of bounds and Leonard would hit four free throws to close it out, 70-64  

NOTES
>UCI knocks off its first ranked opponent since beating No. 20 Stanford in 2003
>This was UCI's second win over a Power Five school this year as it previously defeated Texas A&M on the road back in November
>UC Irvine is the only California team still in the tournament
>UCI is now 1-1 against Kansas State all-time

UC IRVINE HEAD COACH RUSSELL TURNER
"As an opening statement, there's not much to say other than I'm incredibly proud of these guys up here on the dais with me but of each guy as a part of our team to reach this point in the tournament. We came into the game confident with belief that we could win, and I think that belief showed throughout the game, especially when we were down early, and we settled in. We made some defensive adjustments and changes and made the plays to come out on top"

EVAN LEONARD ON THE CROWD FEELING LIKE A HOME GAME
"That was definitely one of the things I noticed right off the bat, you know, the noise. I don't think I've ever been in an arena that was that loud. So at times it kind of made it hard, but, you know, like you said, it definitely felt like a home game, and a lot of our fans traveled with us. So we appreciate that so much."