FOLLOW THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine (25-5, 13-1) at Cal Poly SLO (6-21, 2-12)
Thursday, Mar. 7 | 7:00 p.m.
Robert A. Mott Athletics Center – San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Live Stats | Radio (KUCI & Am830) | Video

UC Irvine (25-5, 13-1) vs. CSUN (13-17, 7-7)
Saturday, Mar. 9 | 7:30 p.m.
Bren Events Center – Irvine, Calif.
Live Stats | Radio (KUCI & AM830) | KDOC-TV 

Game Notes
 

SATURDAY AGAINST CSUN
> UCI will honor its four seniors, Robert Cartwright, Jonathan Galloway, Spencer Rivers and Elston Jones, before the start of Saturday's game against CSUN
> After the game, fans are encouraged to stick around as there will be a Big West regular season championship celebration and presentation of the regular season trophy

OPENING TIPS
> UCI clinched the Big West Tournament No. 1 seed and the regular-season title outright. It's the fourth title in six years for the Anteaters and the sixth overall
> UCI has won 25 of its 30 games, a .833 winning percentage. It is the 'Eaters best record in the Russell Turner era and the best since the 2000-01 team finished 25-5 on the season
> 25 wins is the most regular-season wins in program history. The school record for most overall wins in a season is 28 set by the 2015-16 team
> Through 14 Big West games, UCI is 14-1 its best conference record since the 2000-01 team went 15-1 in conference play
> The Anteaters have gone over a year without losing a Big West game on the road (12-straight games), which is a UCI school record. UCI's last conference road loss was against UC Santa Barbara (Jan. 20, 2018)
> If the 'Eaters win at Cal Poly they will become the first team to go undefeated on the road in conference play since Pacific (2004-05)
> The Anteaters are riding a 11-game winning streak, their longest streak in the Russell Tuner era, and their longest since the 2000-01 team won 13 in a row
> The Anteaters have swept five conference series (UCSB, Hawaii, CS Fullerton, UC Davis, UC Riverside)
> UCI is 12-2 in road games this year. 12 roads wins ties UCI for the most in Division 1 with Belmont and Stony Brook
> UCI reached 20 wins faster than any other California DI men's basketball program and currently has the most wins out of any D1 California team
> The starting five lineup of Galloway, Worku, Hazzard, Rutherford and Leonard is undefeated at 11-0
> UCI is 3-1 in televised games this season
> Since 2012-13, UCI is 92-5 when holding an opponent to 60 points or less. The Anteaters are 13-0 in 2018-19 when doing so, and have won 24 straight dating back to last season when hitting that mark

With a win Thursday ... UCI would win 12-straight games, their longest winning streak since 2000-01 ... The Anteaters would sweep the series with the Mustangs … UCI would go undefeated on the road in Big West play, only the second team in conference history to do so … Win 13 road games
 
CHAMPIONS AGAIN!
> UCI clinched the Big West regular-season title, its fourth regular-season crown in the last six years and sixth title overall
> The Anteaters won the title outright in 2013-14 and 2016-17 and shared the crown in 2015-16
> The Anteaters secure the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Big West Tournament for the first time since 2017
 
ABOUT THE MUSTANGS
> Cal Poly is 1-2 since its last meeting with UCI. The Mustangs defeated Hawaii, 88-80 (Feb. 23)
> CP is currently last in the Big West standings with a 2-12 conference record and will be fighting for a spot in the Big West Tournament
> The Mustangs are last in the conference in field goal percentage (.411), assists (10.5) and scoring margin (-7.6)
> Donovan Fields and Marcellus Garrick are the only two players scoring in double-figures with 16.7 and 11.0 ppg, respectively
> Cal Poly averages 65.8 points per game and 34 rebounds per game
> UCI is 33-22 all-time against the Mustangs and has won three-straight
 
ABOUT THE MATADORS
 > CSUN is in a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings with Hawaii and UC Davis. All three teams have a 7-7 record
> The Matadors have won three-straight games most recently defeating Hawaii, 84-73
> CSUN will play UC Santa Barbara on Thursday before making the trip to the Bren
> The Matadors lead the conference in scoring offense (76.7), field goal percentage (.465), blocked shots (4.6), and steals per game (6.5)
> Lamine Diane leads the conference in scoring (24.2 ppg) and rebounding (10.8 rpg) while Terell Gomez tops the big West in 3-point fg made (3.5)
 
ETCHED IN HISTORY
> Jonathan Galloway became UCI's all-time career rebounding leader against UC Riverside (Mar. 2). He tallied 11 rebounds against the Highlanders stretching his career rebound total to 927
> Galloway's record-breaking rebound came on the defensive end with 2:31 left to play. The Anteaters called a timeout as Galloway received a standing ovation from the crowd
> His 927 career boards break the 44-year old school record previously held by Dave Baker (926). Baker is currently the President and CEO of the NFL Hall of
> Galloway's 139 career games played tie UCI's all-time games played record (139) which is currently held by video coordinator and 2015 graduate Alex Young
 
RECORDS FALL IN UCI'S ROUT OF RIVERSIDE
> UCI defeated UCR 68-47, clinching the Big West regular-season title outright
> The Anteaters won their 25^th game of the season, marking the most regular-season wins in program history
> Jonathan Galloway became UCI's all-time rebounding leader after his 11^th rebound of the night put him at 927 career boards
> Evan Leonard finished with a game-high 14 points
> UCI dominated UCR on the boards, 35-29, and points in the paint, 40-18
 
ANTEATER ROLL OVER AGGIES FOR REGULAR-SEASON TITLE
> Elston Jones notched his third career double-double behind a game-high 12 points and 12 rebounds
> Jonathan Galloway also finished with double-digit rebound, grabbing 10
> As a team, UCI controlled the boards, 44-22
> The Anteaters shot 49% from the floor and held the Aggies to just 30%
 
DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE
> UCI continues to shine on the defensive side of the ball. The Anteaters have held their last three opponents to under 50 points scored
> The Anteaters are ranked 10th nationally in total rebounds (1198), 5th in field goal percentage defense (37.9) and 17th in scoring defense (63.2)
> UCI ranks 48th nationally in total blocks and 2nd in the BWC with 129 on the season
> UCI is first in the conference and 17th nationally in rebounds per game, 39.93
 
HISTORIC START
> UCI recorded its 10th win on Dec. 15th, the earliest date on the calendar in the history of the program. Only two Anteater teams have registered 10 wins by the end of December, including the current 2018-19 team (12/15), the 2015-16 team (12/22)
> In the history of the program, the only UCI squad with more wins in its first 12 games was the 1981-82 team which began 12-1
> The Anteaters 12 regular season non-conference wins ties for the most in program history, The 1981-82 team also had 12 regular season non-conference wins
> Before falling to Butler (Dec. 21), the Anteaters had a 10 game road-winning streak which ended as the second-longest active road-win streak in DI
 
HAZZARD'S HOT START
>Hazzard leads the team with 11.9 points per game and 71 three-pointers made
>He notched back-to-back 20+ point performances scoring 28 against Pacific and 23 against UTRGV
> He has hit five or more three-pointers in four games this season
>Hazzard's 10 three's against Denver was one shy of tying the single-game UCI and Big West records of 11 3-pointers. The UCI record was set by Chris Brown against New Mexico State on Mar. 13, 1994 while the BWC mark is held by Brown and CS Fullerton's Bobby Brown
>Max Hazzard was named the Big West Player of the Week twice this season. He earned the first honor of the season (Nov. 12) and again on Dec. 17
 
MORE ON MAX
> He recorded his 143^rd career three-pointer against Hawaii (2/9/19), moving up to No. 10 in UCI's all-time three-pointers made list. He surpassed Scott Brooks and Travis Souza (142)
> Max made at least one three-pointer 20-straight games. His streak ended against UC Riverside (3/2)
 
RECORD NIGHT
> UCI's 34-point, 86-52, defeat of Denver at home was the most since the 'Eaters beat Life Pacific, 87-53, (Nov. 12)
> The Anteaters set a new school record in single-game 3-pointers with 18, breaking the previous record of 16 three's recorded on Feb. 13 1999 against Cal State Fullerton
> Max Hazzard set a new Bren Events Center record after hitting a career-best 10 three-pointers. He ended the night with a career-high 32 points on 10-17 shooting from long range
 
QUICK HITS
> UCI is 22-1 when totaling more or the same rebounds and 2-4 when finishing with less
> UCI is 13-0 when holding opponents to 60 points or less and 20-1 when keeping opponents under 70 points
> Jonathan Galloway has lead the team in rebounding in 14 games
> UCI Elston Jones has tallied at least one block in all but four games
> Max Hazzard has led UCI in scoring a team-best nine times
 
UCI IN THE STATS
> Galloway's 251 total rebounds ranks 59th nationally. He leads UCI with 8.4 rebounds per game, which is second-best in the conference
> Elston Jones has a team-best 50 blocks this season which ranks 66th nationally and second in the BWC
> The Anteaters are No. 6 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll, their highest ranking of the year
  
 NEWS AND NOTES
> Head coach Russell Turner moved to second in UCI's all-time career when he earned his 164thwin against St. Mary's (11/28). His 168th career win against EMU moved him to ninth in the Big West's all-time career wins list
> The last time the Anteaters opened the Big West season with an overtime game was in 2012-13 where they defeated UC Davis 69-58
> John Edgar Jr. was named to the Gulf Coast Showcase All-Tournament Team after averaging 12 points per game and three rebounds per game including hitting a season-high 16 points against Toledo in the championship game
> Head coach Russell Turner returns for his ninth season at the helm. Turner upped his career win total to 157 becoming the third coach in UCI history to eclipse 150 wins in a career and he's done it in just eight seasons averaging nearly 20 wins a season. He trails to Anteater coaching great and Pat Douglass (197 career wins) who reached the 150-win plateau in his 10th season
> Seven postseason teams dot the 2018-19 schedule
> The Anteaters were picked to finish first in the Big West Preseason Poll garnering 10 of the 24 first-place votes and 192 points
> Evan Leonard and Tommy Rutherford were selected to the six-member preseason all-conference team
> UCI returns 94.30 percent of its offense in 2018-19, the eighth best mark in the nation. The Anteaters are 1 of 14 teams nationally that return 90% or more offensively
> Defensively, UCI finished the 2017-18 season fifth in the NCAA in rebounds per game with a 41.2 average. The Anteaters also ranked third in defensive rebounds per game (29.2), sixth in total rebounds (1,443) and 10th in rebounding margin (+7.5)
> The Anteaters were fifth in the nation last year allowing opponents to shoot 38.9% from the field. UCI is 1 of 10 schools to keep opponents under 40%, and 1 of 4 to keep them under 39%
> UCI finished with the stingiest scoring defense in the conference allowing 67.1 points per game. UCI also led the conference in rebounding for the fifth time in program history and fourth in the last five years
> Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook ranked UC Irvine No. 1 in its Big West preseason poll. It also picked Tommy
Rutherford and Jonathan Galloway to the preseason all-conference team
> The Big West's two-time Defensive Player of the Year Jonathan Galloway returns for his final season, he led UCI in rebounding (7.6) and blocked shots (47) a year ago, becoming the 14th Anteater to reach 600 career rebounds.
> Galloway has averaged 225 rebounds per season, a total that would put him near 1,000 career rebounds
 
NEW FACES
> UCI added four to the roster this season including grad transfer Robert Cartwright
> Cartwright graduated from Stanford last spring, playing three season for the Cardinal. He led Stanford in assist to turnover ratio at 2.14 last season, averaging 4.7 points and 2.3 assists
> The Anteaters also welcome freshmen JC Butler, Devin Cole and Aiden Krause
> Head coach Russell Turner announced the addition of Alex Young to his staff in 2018-19. Young returns to his alma mater as video coordinator. He was a four-year member of the UCI men's basketball team and graduated in 2016 as the only player in school history to record over 1000 points, 500 assists, and 500 rebounds. Young was also a part of UCI's 2015 NCAA Tournament
 
THIS AND THAT
> The 18 three-pointers recorded by the 'Eaters against Denver set a school and Bren Events Center record, besting the previous mark of 16 recorded on Feb. 13, 1999 vs. Cal State Fullerton
> UCI has been in four OT games this season, the most since the 2002-03 team also went into overtime on four occasions. That team also went 3-1 in extra-man situations
> The Anteaters have amassed a 74-19 record at home over the last six years. Since 2012-13, UCI leads all Big West teams with 46 home wins in conference play, going 46-10 in that stretch
> UCI is 8-0 in games that have been decided by five or fewer points this season
> UCI reached the 20-win mark at the earliest date on the calendar in program-history. In terms of fewest games played to get to a 20-win total, only two previous Anteater teams have gotten there faster—2000-01 (23) and 1981-82 (24)
 
UP NEXT
UCI will play in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament Thursday, March 14 at 6 p.m. at the Honda Center. The Anteaters will play UC Riverside or Cal Poly