FOLLOW THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine Anteaters (5-3) vs. Duquesne Dukes (4-7)
Sunday, December 19 - 10:00 a.m.
LeBron James Arena at St. Vincent / St. Mary's HS (1,800) - Akron, Ohio
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UC Irvine Anteaters (5-3) at Buffalo Bulls (6-3)
Tuesday, December 21 - 4:00 p.m.
Alumni Arena (6,783) - Buffalo, N.Y.
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The 'Eaters finish non-conference play with a trip out East starting with a game in Ohio against Duquesne and finishing at perennial postseason program in Buffalo.
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Storylines
· UC Irvine continues its 27-day stretch away from the Bren Events Center with a pair of games on the East Coast to finish non-conference play. It's the third time in the last four season the 'Eaters travel to face an opponent in the Eastern Time Zone.
· The Anteaters battle with 10th-ranked USC Wednesday night falling 66-61. UCI fell down by 10 points early, but quickly turned that into a 10-point lead and entered the half up by eight. A defensive struggle in the second half saw the Trojans creep ahead and withstand
Collin Welp's 15-point half to remain one of the seven undefeated programs left in the country.
· UCI's win streak stopped at five with a 63-55 loss at Fresno State Saturday. A battle of two stout defenses fell to the home side as the Bulldogs kept their unbeaten mark at Save Mart Center, now 6-0. Key Bulldog Orlando Robinson was held to just seven points after averaging 19.4 this season and putting up no fewer than 15 in any contest.
· The Anteaters were led by
DJ Davis scoring 16 points off the bench making all eight shots free throws and joined by one of
JC Butler's best games as an Anteater as noted by head coach
Russell Turner with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting making both threes with five rebounds in 32 minutes
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Justin Hohn made his first career start in career game 27 with a career high 32 minutes posting 10 points, three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. He got an opportunity after
Dawson Baker was unavailable with a hand injury. Baker may miss several weeks recovering.
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Collin Welp stepped up with a 24-point night Wednesday after ending a stretch of 9-straight games in double figures. It's Welp's ninth 20-point game, and the 24 points are the fourth-highest point total of his career. On Wednesday, his scoring came in spurts with nine straight points in the first half and in the final four minutes putting up eight straight Anteater points.
· Nationally, the Anteater defense is among the nation's best. UCI was tops in the NCAA in scoring defense last week, and now stand eighth nationally at 56 points per game allowed. The defense stands third nationally allowing opponents to shoot 35.3% from the floor and 24.8% from three. The 'Eaters continue to crash the boards ranking 22nd in defensive rebounds per game, 36th in rebound margin, and 40th in rebounds per game at 41 to lead the Big West.
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Austin Johnson led the team in rebounding for a second straight game with nine at USC. He averages 7.8 a game, and dropped his fourth double-digit scoring game with 10 at USC.
· The 'Eaters have had multiple players in double-figures every game this season.
Collin Welp has reached double digits in seven of eight games. UCI has had three with double digits in each of the last four games, and four in double digits vs. La Verne.
· The Anteaters regularly run out their depth with 10 players appearing in at least six games. Thirteen Anteaters have over 10 minutes per game and seven with over 15 minutes a game. No Anteater shows up in the top 15 in the conference in minutes per game. UCI has been without
Dawson Baker for the last two games, and could miss several weeks with a hand injury.
· From the charity stripe, UCI shoots 68.4% from the line including 19 makes at Fresno State on 23 attempts, a season-best, and
DJ Davis was good on all eight attempts.
Collin Welp stands third in the conference shooting 82.4%. When it comes down to it, three Anteaters in Davis (82.9%),
Isaiah Lee (82%), and Welp (81.0%) have a career shooting percentage over 80%..
· UCI's 7.8 steals per game lead the Big West. They're second in blocks with 3.5 per game, but have the blocks leader in
Austin Johnson with 19 this season adding four blocks at USC, good for 55th nationally and best in the Big West along with his 2.38 per game, 30th in the NCAA.
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24 -Â UCI battled with undefeated and No. 10 USC Wednesday night in a game that included 10-point leads for each side in the first half. UCI led by 8 at the half and for
24:24 of the 40-minute contest before ultimately falling by 5
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Collin Welp has jumped
9 spots in the Anteater all-time scoring list starting the season 26th and now 17th after 24 points at USC surpassing Mike Heckman, Johnny Rogers, and Darren Fells in one outing. He's also 17th all-time in rebounds with exactly 600
3rd -Â After leading the NCAA in scoring defense last week, UCI began Thursday 8th in the nation, but is impressive still ranking
3rd in FG (35.3%) and 3PT percentage defense (24.8%). They still lead the Big West with 41 rebounds per game and 7.8 steals per game
5-5 -Â The 'Eaters make a trip for two East Coast matchups. UCI is
5-5 in the Eastern Time Zone under coach Turner. UCI is making its first trip to NY since the 2016 CIT Final and first trip to Ohio since the 2003 Dell BCA Classic in Cincinnati
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Get To Know the 2021-22 Anteaters
· The Big West announced the Big West Game of the Week that will be televised on Spectrum SportsNet. One matchup will be broadcasted each Saturday at 1:00 p.m. during conference season with UCI featured twice: February 19 vs. Hawai'i and March 5 at CSU Bakersfield
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Collin Welp continues to climb the Anteater record books. He jumped three spots in the all-time scoring list with his 24-point night surpassing Mike Heckman, Johnny Rogers, and Darren Fells. He sits 17th with 1,256 with Eyassu Worku next 17 points ahead. He also reached 600 career rebounds with one Wednesday night. He's 17th on the rebound list 11 behind Ricky Butler.
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Collin Welp named the Big West Player of the Week November 29. The honor was Welp's third at UCI and UCI's first in 2021-22 stemming from his performance at Santa Clara where he led with 17 points and 10 rebounds; UCI's first double-double of the year and his 11th career double-double.
· Team captains were selected for the 2021-22 season as fifth-year
Collin Welp and third-year
Ofure Ujadughele. Welp is a captain for a second straight year while it's a first for Ujadughele's.
· The 2021-22 Lou Henson National Player of the Year award presented to the top mid-major player annually featured
Collin Welp. Welp was 1 of 50 players from across 21 mid-major conferences on the list.
· UCI was selected to finish second in the Big West according to the Coaches Poll. The Anteaters earned four of nine first-place votes finishing one vote behind preseason favorite, UC Santa Barbara. The Preseason Media Poll also selected UCI to finish second, three votes behind UCSB, and with two of the 11 first-place votes.
· Preseason All-Big West featured
Collin Welp on both the Coaches' and Media teams. He was 1 of 4 players (Maddox—CSF, Manjon—UCD, Sow—UCSB) to appear on both teams.
Dawson Baker earned honorable mention recognition on the media's team.
· The 2020-21 Anteaters had six players recognized on the Big West Winter All-Academic squad. To be eligible, student-athletes must maintain a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, complete one full year at their member institution, and compete in at least 50% of their team's contests. Four current members of the team were recognized in
Isaiah Lee,
Collin Welp,
Emmanuel Tshimanga, and
Ofure Ujadughele. That quartet was joined by alums
Jeron Artest and
Brad Greene.
· That 2020-21 squad also earned Team Academic Excellence Awards and Honors Court from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). UC Irvine was the only Big West school to earn the distinction.
Brad Greene was recognized on the Honors Court making it for a second consecutive year.
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Sunday vs. Duquesne
· The Anteaters and Duquesne Dukes match up for the first time in a neutral site contest in Akron, Ohio. Dukes head coach Keith Dambrot who was LeBron James' coach during his freshman and sophomore high school seasons. Dambrot returns to St. Vincent/St. Mary's High School for a third time to play a Division I game in LeBron James arena.
· The 2021-22 Dukes are 4-7 picking up wins over Rider, Bradley, American, and most recently vs. New Hampshire. They've added close losses to Marshall, Weber State, and Colorado in overtime in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands. Duquesne has some neutral site experience, but overall is 1-4 away from home to this point.
· Duquesne returned just 23.2% of their minutes from 2020-21, fifth-least in the country rating as one of the least experienced teams entering the game according to KenPom.com. Offensively, Duquesne averages 69.4 points per game led by a slew of transfers in Kevin Easley Jr., Leon Ayers III, and Tre Williams, and freshman Primo Spears all averaging 12 or 13 points a game. The Dukes added 4,695 points from transfers, sixth-most in the nation. Williams is a beast playing 34 minutes a game and hauling in team highs with 6.9 rebounds a game and swatting 28 shots.
Tuesday at Buffalo
· A first-ever meeting between the Anteaters and Bulls comes Tuesday on ESPN+. Buffalo enters the weekend at 6-3 with a game at fellow-Buffalo school, Canisius, Saturday. The Bulls are 12th nationally in scoring averaging 83.6 points per game which has included three 100-point games, a three-point loss to top mid-major squad St. Bonaventure, and putting up 76 at No. 6 Michigan. Buffalo is unbeaten at home in three games, but only one Division I opponent of those in Rider. They've also traveled to Cancun splitting with Illinois State and Stephen F. Austin. UCI makes its first trip to New York since the CIT Final in 2016 losing to Columbia and are 4-2 in the state.
· The prolific offense makes 47.1% of their shots to lead the MAC. Unlike Duquesne, Buffalo is the fourth-oldest team in the nation averaging 21.6 years of age with one player under the age of 20 and Jamon Bivens at 24 years old. Jeenathan Williams posts 19.1 points per game including 32 to start the year at Michigan. They have the conference's leader in assists in Ronaldo Segu averaging 5.1 a game along with his 15.6 points per game. Josh Mballa finishes out the big scorers with 14.7 points a game along with a team-best 8.1 rebounds per contest among the quartet of players with Maceo Jack all averaging over 27 minutes a game.
· UCI has made trips to the East Coast in five different seasons under head coach
Russell Turner with a 5-5 record. UCI played five times in 2018 going 2-1 in a Florida showcase and splitting a weekend at Eastern Michigan and Butler.
