UC San Diego (10-10, 7-3 Big West) at
UC Irvine (16-4, 8-1 Big West)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 2
Time: 7 p.m. (PST)
Location: Bren Events Center (5,000) - Irvine, Calif.
Breast Cancer Awareness Game: A portion of every ticket sold will go toward supporting the UCI Breast Health Center

Long Beach State (13-7, 8-2 Big West) at
UC Irvine (16-4, 8-1 Big West)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 4
Time: 1 p.m. (PST)
TV: SpectrumSportsNet
Location: Bren Events Center (5,000) - Irvine, Calif.
National Girls & Women in Sports Day / Alumni Day

* UC Irvine Athletics is utilizing mobile ticketing and a clear bag policy.

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine women's basketball is set to host two teams that are among the top-four in the Big West standings at the Bren Events Center. The Anteaters will start the week against fourth-place UC San Diego Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. They are then slated to take on second-place Long Beach State Saturday, Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. UCI's game against the Beach will be broadcast live on Spectrum SportsNet.
 
STARTING FIVE: STORYLINES
• UC Irvine will host UC San Diego and Long Beach State in two pivotal Big West games. The Anteaters enter the week in sole possession of first place in the conference standings with an 8-1 record. They are a half-game ahead of LBSU (8-2) and 1.5 games ahead of UCSD (7-3). UC Santa Barbara (7-2) is also in third, sitting one game behind UCI.
 
• The 'Eaters have been on a dominant run in conference action as they have lost only nine Big West regular-season games in the last two-plus years. Since 2020-21, they have put up a league-best 33 regular-season conference victories and a .786 win percentage.
 
• The Anteaters have won 10 of their last 11 games. They recently saw a school-record tying nine-game win streak snapped in an overtime defeat to Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 26. That was their first Big West and first home loss of the season.
 
• UCI came in at No. 16 in the latest College Insider Women's Mid-Major Top 25. The Anteaters have been featured in the poll for six-straight weeks with a high ranking of 13th.
 
• As of Jan. 30, the Anteaters rank eighth in the nation in scoring defense. They have held 15 of their 20 opponents to 60 points or less and are 13-2 in those contests.

SCOUTING THE TRITONS
UC San Diego (10-10, 7-3 Big West) has won five of its last six including home victories over CSUN, 62-55, and UC Riverside, 63-50, last week. Sydney Brown leads the Tritons with 13.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Emily Cangelosi is also averaging 9.6 ppg and has knocked down a team-high 36 triples.
 
SERIES RECORD
UC Irvine leads in its all-time series with UC San Diego, 9-1. The Anteaters swept the Tritons last year, improving to 3-1 in the series since UCSD made the move to Division I.
 
SCOUTING THE BEACH
After falling to UC Irvine on Jan. 7, Long Beach State has won six in a row to improve to 13-7 overall and 8-2 in Big West action. The Beach ranks eighth in all of NCAA Division I in steals per game (12.4 spg) and is 20th in turnovers forced (20.9/gm). Tori Harris (13.1 ppg), Malia Bambrick (12.7 ppg) and Kianna Hamilton-Fisher (10.1 ppg) are all averaging double figures in scoring for LBSU. Ma'Qhi Berry is also tops on the squad and in The Big West with 4.4 assists per outing, while Kristyna Jeskeova has pulled down a team-best 6.5 rebounds per contest.
 
SERIES RECORD
UC Irvine trails in its all-time series with Long Beach State, 63-21, but has won seven of the last 11, including a 60-57 victory in the first meeting of the season at the Walter Pyramid on Jan. 7.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine bounced back from its first Big West loss of the season with a 54-52 victory over CSUN last Saturday at Premier America Credit Union Arena. The short-handed Anteaters came out strong, taking the early lead and going up by as many as 16 in the third quarter. The Matadors then made a late push, but UCI was able to keep its composure down the stretch to complete the regular-season series sweep. Nikki Tom led the 'Eaters with 15 points, six rebounds and two steals. She was 4-for-6 from the field and 6-of-6 at the free throw line. Hunter Hernandez had her sixth-straight double-figure scoring game with 13 points, while adding seven boards. Déja Lee also reached double digits with 10 points, and Nevaeh Parkinson pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
 
LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
The Anteaters are first in The Big West standings with their 8-1 record putting them a half-game ahead of Long Beach State in second and one game in front of UC Santa Barbara in third. Over the last two-plus seasons, no team has been better in Big West regular-season games than UC Irvine. The 'Eaters are coming off back-to-back four-loss campaigns, combining for a 33-9 (.786) league record since 2020-21. They recently saw a streak of 11 consecutive regular-season conference wins come to an end with their loss to Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 26 being their first since a defeat at Hawai'i on Feb. 19, 2022.
 
IN THE RANKINGS
UCI dropped three spots to No. 16 in the latest College Insider Women's Mid-Major Top 25. Last week, the Anteaters came in at No. 13, which was the highest ranking in program history. They have been ranked since Dec. 27, and were receiving votes for the five weeks prior to that.
 
TENACIOUS D
The 'Eaters are eighth in all of NCAA Division I in scoring defense with their 53.3 points allowed per game coming in behind No. 1 South Carolina, Norfolk State, Campbell, No. 3 LSU, No. 16 Duke, Fairleigh Dickinson and USC. The Anteaters have held 15 of their 20 opponents to 60 points or less. Their season-high in points allowed was 67 in an overtime win at Hawai'i on Jan. 19. UCI also ranks 22nd in the nation in steals (10.8 spg) and 29th in turnovers forced (20.4/gm).
 
FROM THE LINE
UC Irvine ranks first in The Big West in free throw percentage (77%). The Anteaters have had some of their best performances at the charity stripe in conference games as they were 8-for-8 against CSU Bakersfield and at Long Beach State, 16-of-17 at UC Santa Barbara and 20-of-24 at CSUN last Saturday. Individually, Diaba Konate is tops on the squad and in The Big West with a 92.6% clip.
 
HOME COOKING
Since 2017-18, UC Irvine is 55-21 (.724) at the Bren Events Center. The Anteaters, who are 7-1 at the Bren this year, saw a 13-game home win streak snapped on Thursday, Jan. 26.
 
ATTENDANCE RECORDS
UC Irvine has set two of the program's top-eight attendance records this season. On Dec. 14, the Anteaters hosted Kids Day where they brought in eight local elementary schools for their sixth-best attendance mark of 1,101. Against UC Davis (Jan. 5), the 'Eaters also welcomed 1,093 fans to the Bren Events Center. It is the first time since 2011 that UCI women's basketball has seen a home crowd of over 1,000.
 
100 AND COUNTING
Seventh-year head coach Tamara Inoue earned her 100th career win in the non-conference finale against Grand Canyon on Dec. 21. Inoue is the second coach in program history to reach the century mark as her 108 victories rank second all-time behind only Dean Andrea (158), who spent
13 years at the helm from 1978-1991. Inoue, the 2021 co-Big West Coach of the Year has led the 'Eaters to two of the program's three national postseason tournaments and two of their four 20-win campaigns.
 
HUNT, WILLIAMS OUT FOR SEASON
UC Irvine has lost two starters, Naomi Hunt and Olivia Williams, to season-ending injuries in Big West play. Hunt, who was leading the Anteaters in both scoring (11.7 ppg) and rebounding (4.9 rpg), has been out since the conference opener against CSU Bakersfield on Dec. 31. Williams also suffered a season-ending injury at Hawai'i on Jan. 19. She had started every game this year, averaging 8.9 points and tying for the team lead with 24 triples.
 
RACKING UP THE MINUTES
Sophomores Hunter Hernandez and Nikki Tom have played nearly every minute of the Anteaters' last three games, which included back-to-back overtime contests at Hawai'i and vs. Cal State Fullerton. Since Jan. 19, Hernandez has been on the court for all but 35 seconds, while Tom sat out only two minutes and 56 seconds. On the season, Tom ranks fourth in The Big West at 32.9 mpg.
 
WEEKLY HONORS
Sophomore Hunter Hernandez earned her first career Big West Player of the Week award on Jan. 23. She was recognized for her performance in a tough road trip where she averaged 16.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists in wins at UC Santa Barbara and at Hawai'i. On the season, Hernandez has 11 double-figure scoring games with seven coming in conference play, including each of the last six. In UCI's 8-1 league start, the 5-foot-9 guard has led the way with 12.7 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 2.9 apg and 1.1 spg.
 
SEEING DOUBLE
Hunter Hernandez has a pair of double-doubles and 20-point games this season. In her first start of the year on Dec. 14, Hernandez finished with career-highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds against Westcliff. Three days later, she matched that point total in a 72-57 win over Dartmouth. Hernandez added 13 points and 10 boards in the non-conference finale vs. Grand Canyon.
 
GIVE AND TAKE
Junior transfer Diaba Konate leads the team and ranks among the top-four in The Big West in both assists (3.4 apg) and steals (2.3 spg) per game. Konate has dished out  3+ dimes 12 times with a season-high seven coming vs. LIU on Nov. 25. She has also recorded at least one steal in every appearance, including a season-best five takeaways at Fresno State (Dec. 11). The Paris, France, native, has been one of UCI's top offensive threats as well, averaging 7.9 points per contest.
 
STARTING LINE
UC Irvine is 12-2 overall, and 10-1 this season, when sophomore Déja Lee is in the starting lineup. On Jan. 5, she stepped seamlessly back into the first five as she registered career highs of 22 points, eight rebounds and five steals to lift UCI to a 67-38 win over UC Davis. The 5-foot-9 point guard also had 12 points against Seattle U in her first start of the year on Nov. 19, 11 points and a career-best six assists in a start vs. Westcliff and 11 points in a start vs. CSUN. In the season opener, Lee came off the bench to lead all players with 16 points (7-9 FG), eight boards, five dimes and no turnovers against Whittier.
 
COURT PRESENCE
Sophomore Nikki Tom has been a steady presence on the court for UCI, starting every game and averaging 7.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals. She has eight double-figure scoring performances, including a career-high 18 points on a near perfect outing where she was 6-of-7 from the field (4-4 3FG) vs. LIU on Nov. 25. Tom also had 15 points (4-6 FG, 6-6 FT) in a 54-52 victory at CSUN on Jan. 28. In addition, the 5-foot-9 guard registered a career-high five steals and six assists vs. Westcliff on Dec. 14.
 
ON THE HORIZON
Diaba Konate, who dished out her 300th career assist at Eastern Washington on Dec. 1, is approaching another benchmark as she is on pace to reach 1,000 points. Konate (957) needs 43 more points to join the 1K club.
 
ROAD WARRIORS
The Anteaters have played 12 of their 20 games away from Irvine and are 9-3 in those contests. UCI recently wrapped up a stretch where it played four of five on the road, including back-to-back trips to Santa Barbara and Hawai'i.

DOWN TO THE WIRE
UC Irvine has been impressive in close contests this season with a 6-2 record in games decided by four points or less. In non-conference play, the Anteaters had two game-winners in the final seconds as Diaba Konate sank the go-ahead jumper with 0.2 ticks on the clock in a 60-58 triumph at Sac State (Nov. 12), and Nevaeh Parkinson converted a layup with 4.2 seconds remaining to give UCI a 54-53 victory at Seattle U (Nov. 19).

UP NEXT
UC Irvine will visit Cal Poly on Thursday, Feb. 9, and UC Riverside on Saturday, Feb. 11. It will be the Anteaters' first meeting with both the Mustangs and Highlanders this season.