The UC Irvine men's basketball team wrapped up its most successful season in program history. Here's a look at some of the 2018-19 highlights.

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MAGIC IN MARCH
> UCI earned its second NCAA Tournament berth after winning its second Big West Tournament Championship. Both occasions fell under the helm of head coach Russell Turner as the 'Eaters were the 13-seed in both 2015 and 2019
> The Anteaters won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game after defeating fourth-seed Kansas State, 70-64. With the win, UCI also knocked off its first ranked since beating No. 15 Stanford in 2003. K-State entered the game ranked No. 18 in the AP National Poll and 14^th in the Coaches' Poll. It was also UCI's second win over a Power Five school after defeating Texas A&M in November
> UCI played Oregon in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament and fell, 73-54
> The Anteaters earned the Big West Tournament title after defeating UC Riverside in the quarterfinals, 63-44, Long Beach State in the semifinals, 75-67, and Cal State Fullerton in the final, 92-64
> UCI's 28-point margin of victory was the largest in Big West Tournament Championship Game history
> Over the three Big West Tournament games, UCI out-scored its opponents in the paint 122-62 and won by an average of 18.3 points
> Max Hazzard was named the Big West Tournament MVP while Collin Welp and Evan Leonard were named on the All-Tournament Team
> UCI received votes in the final two National Coaches' Polls of the season (Week 19 & Week 20)
> The 'Eaters finished March with a 7-1 record

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
> The 'Eaters set a slew of school records in 2018-19 including the most wins (31) and longest winning streak (17 games) in program history
> UCI went 15-1 in Big West play, tying the program best set in 2000-01
> The Anteaters became the first Big West team, current or former, to win 30 games in a season since national runner-up UNLV went 34-1 in 1990-01
> UCI reached 20 wins on the earliest calendar date in program history and also reached 10 wins on the earliest dates (Dec. 15)
> The Anteaters 12 regular season non-conference wins tied for the most in program history
> Senior forward Jonathan Galloway ends his UCI career with the most wins (98), games played (146) and rebounds (969) in program history. His 146 games played are also the most in Big West history
> Evan Leonard broke the school record for consecutive made free throws with 44-straight
> Max Hazzard hit a Bren Events Center record 10 three-pointers in UCI's 86-52 win over Denver. He ended the night with a career-high 32 points
> As a team against Denver, the Anteaters buried 18 three-pointers to set a new school record, breaking the previous mark of 16
> Head coach Russell Turner moved to second in UCI's all-time career wins list. He has an overall record of 188-28 in nine seasons at the helm. Turner is nine wins behind Anteater coaching great Pat Douglass (197 wins)

ROAD WARRIORS
> UCI tied with Stony Brook for the most wins on the road this season with 13. The 'Eaters went 13-2 on the road in 2018-19
> The Anteaters became the second Big West team to go undefeated on the road in league play (8-0), matching Pacific who did it in 2004-05.
> Early season wins at Texas A&M and Saint Mary's are highlights. The Anteaters 74-73 win against the Aggies was UCI's first win over a SEC school since 2006 when the Anteaters beat South Carolina 67-52
> UCI beat Saint Mary's 80-75 in Moraga where the Gaels went 14-3 at home this year. After UCI took away the victory, SMC didn't lose again at home until the final regular season game against No. 1 Gonzaga
> Eyassu Worku hit a fall away game-winner with six seconds remaining to beat Texas A&M at Reed Arena in the first road game of the year
> Max Hazzard hit a jumper with 10 seconds left in overtime to lift UC Irvine to a 75-74 win over Hawai'i in Honolulu. The Anteaters stormed back from a 14-point deficit with 8:36 left in the second half to send the game to overtime tied, 64-64
> In an important Black & Blue Rivalry game, Evan Leonard fired a pass inside to Tommy Rutherford who laid in the game-winner with 2.4 seconds on the clock for the 82-80 victory over Long Beach State at Walter Pyramid
> UCI also rallied from 18-down to CSUN to beat the Matadors on the road, 74-68
> 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

DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE
> UCI is ranked fourth nationally in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just .382 percent. The 'Eaters trail Houston and Final Four teams', Texas Tech and Michigan State. The Anteaters are ranked sixth in the country in total rebounds with 1,478 and 13th in rebound average (39.95). The team ranks ninth in rebound margin (7.0)
> The Anteaters held opposing teams under 60 points 14 times this season, including seven opponents to under 50 points
> UCI went 14-0 when holding an opponent to 60 points or less and have won 25 straight games dating back to last season when hitting that mark. Since 2012-13, UCI is 93-5 when doing so
> Jonathan Galloway made history becoming the first three-time recipient of the Big West's Defensive Player of the Year honor. He led UCI with 7.9 rebounds per game and 293 total boards

TEAM EFFORT
> Nine different players have led the Anteaters in scoring this year with Evan Leonard and Max Hazzard topping the squad in points on 10 occasions each
> Nine different players averaged at least 16 minutes of playing time a game, with no one averaging more than 26
> Max Hazzard led the 'Eaters in scoring with 12.5 ppg followed by Evan Leonard with 11.3 ppg
> Freshman Collin Welp came off the bench and averaged 8.6 ppg, good for third-best on the team
> UCI stacked up the Big West Conference's yearly awards including the majority of the top awards. Russ Turner was named the Coach of the Year for the third time in his career while Jonathan Galloway earned his third Big West Defensive Player of the Year honor. Elson Jones was named the Best Sixth Player, the first time a UCI player has earned that award
> Galloway was also placed on the All-Conference First Team while Max Hazzard was named on the Second Team. Evan Leonard and Tommy Rutherford were named Honorable Mention selections

STILL HUNGRY
> UCI will lose four seniors to graduation in Jonathan Galloway, Elston Jones, Spencer Rivers and Robert Cartwright. However, the 'Eaters return 12 players including four starters and 71 percent of their scoring offense
> UC Irvine will add more depth from redshirts Brad Greene, Aiden Krause and Devin Cole
> The Anteaters have also signed three student-athletes in Isaiah Lee, Justin Hohn and Hayden Welling

SEASON AT A GLANCE
Head Coach: Russell Turner
9th Season (188-128)

2018-19 Season
Record: 31-6
Home: 12-2
Away: 13-2
Neutral: 6-2
Non-Conference: 12-4
Big West Record: 15-1
Big West Standings: 1st
Big West Tournament: Champions
NCAA Tournament: Lost in second round
 
Team Stats - Big West rank
72.3 PPG - 4th
63.6 PPG allowed - 1st
39.95 Rebounds per game - 1st
13.0 Assists per game - 4th
4.2 Blocks per game – 2nd
5.7 Steals per game - 5th
45.7% FG percentage – 2nd
38.2% FG% allowed - 1st
35.9% 3pt percentage – 3rd
33.7% 3pt% allowed – 4th
70.2% FT percentage - 4th
+1.09 Assist-to-Turnover ratio- 4th

Team Leaders
Minutes: Worku – 26.4
Scoring: Hazzard- 12.5
Points High: Hazzard - 32
Rebounding: Galloway - 7.9
Rebound High: Galloway - 14
Assists: Worku – 2.7
Blocks: Jones - 1.5
Steals: Leonard - 1.5
FG%: Galloway - 60.6%
3-pointers: Hazzard - 93
FT%: Leonard – 85.4%