THIS WEEK IN ANTEATER BASKETBALL
UC Irvine (17-9, 10-4) at Long Beach State (8-18, 4-10)
Walter Pyramid (4,200) – Long Beach, Calif.
Thursday, Feb. 19 - 7:00 PM | ESPN+ |  Live Stats 

UC San Diego (18-9, 8-7) at UC Irvine (17-9, 10-4) 
Bren Events Center (5,000) - Irvine, Calif.
Saturday, Feb. 21 - 7:00 PM | ESPN+ |  Live Stats 

UC Irvine starts the week traveling to Black & Blue rival Long Beach State Thursday (Feb. 19) for a 7:00 p.m. game at the Walter Pyramid before returning home to host UC San Diego Saturday (Feb. 21) at the Bren Events Center at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday's game with the Tritons will be broadcast on Spectrum SportsNet.

STORYLINES
UC Irvine is 17-9 overall and 10-4 in the Big West splitting a pair of games last week, falling at Cal Poly, 73-79 then bouncing back for a dominant 86-65 victory over Cal State Fullerton at home.

Senior forward Kyle Evans continues to lead the country in total blocks (87) and block average (3.35).

With six blocks last week, Evans climbed both the UCI and Big West season block lists, moving into a tie for second on the UCI season list and in a tie for fourth on the Big West season block list, tying Mamadou Ndiaye who had 87 in 2015-16. The forward is now tracking down Ndiaye's school record of 106 set in 2013-14. Next on the Big West list is UC Santa Barbara's Eric McArthur who had 91 in 1989-90.

Nationally, UC Irvine ranks fifth in blocks (6.0), third in field goal percentage defense (37.8) and ninth in defensive rebounds (28.88).

Five players scored in double figures in the win over the Titans. The Anteaters are 8-0 when five players have double-digit points.

UCI is 9-3 at home this season and 35-5 in their own building over the last two-plus seasons. They've made a run of 88-15 over the last seven-plus seasons.

LONG BEACH STATE LOWDOWN
The Black & Blue Rivalry heads to the Pyramid in the 120th all-time matchup. LBSU holds a 65-54 series advantage overall with a 34-17 record in their own building.

The Beach is 8-18 under second-year coach Chris Acker. The first meeting in the Bren this year went to the 'Eaters, 74-64. LBSU went on to win the next three including at CSUN, but have now dropped the last seven including single-digit losses to UCSB, Hawai'i, Fullerton, and at UC San Diego with a 71-54 loss to UC Davis most recently.

The first matchup was tightly-contested through the beginning of the second half before a 10-0 Anteater run. Jurian Dixon dropped 23 points to lead all scorers while Gavin Sykes (21) and Petar Majstorovic (15) paced LBSU..

OH HENRY
Guard Andre Henry continues to shine off the bench.

Graduate student Andre Henry was a perfect 8-8 from the field, including 3-3 from beyond the arc last Saturday to lead UCI against Cal State Fullerton. Over the last seven games, the guard has averaged 14.3 points and is shooting .529 (37-70) from the floor with 11 three-pointers.The savvy veteran also has 10 steals and 18 rebounds in that stretch.

Henry is the NCAA active leader in career games played at the same school, seeing action in 137 over his five-plus years. The 2024 Big West Defensive Player of the Year, is averaging 9.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game overall.

DIXON FROM DOWNTOWN
Redshirt sophomore Jurian Dixon tied his career-high with six threes versus Cal Poly last week. He leads the team with 54 three-pointers and ranks fifth in three-point field goal percentage (.383) and eighth in three-pointers made per game (2.1) among Big West players.

Dixon is seventh in the Big West in scoring with a 15.5 mark, recording double-digit scoring in all but four games this season. He has led the Anteaters in scoring 12 times and posted 20 or more points four times this season.

ASSIST MAN
True freshman Tama Isaac is averaging 4.5 assists per game, which is second in the Big West. He had a career-high 13 assists in the second meeting with CSU Bakersfield.

The guard has dished six or more assists in nine games.

He is averaging 6.9 points and 3.4 rebounds on the season.

DOWN LOW
Harrison Carrington is averaging 8.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. He has totaled double-digits points in seven of the last eight games. The redshirt junior grabbed a career-high eight rebounds in back-to-back games against Hawaii and CSU Bakersfield.

Akiva McBirney-Griffin has started the last six games and is averaging 2.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game overall. He had a season-high eight points against Weber State and Lincoln and a season's best seven rebounds versus Bethesda.

Nes Emeneke and Elijah Chol each have 23 blocks. Chol is averaging 5.5 points and 3.9 rebounds, while Emeneke averages 1.5 points and 2.7 rebounds.

AROUND THE BIG WEST
The Anteaters are second in the Big West in field goal percentage (.463), team rebounds (40.6) and assist average (16.19) and are third in assist/turnover ratio (1.30).

Kyle Evans is second in the Big West in field goal percentage (.623) and rebounding with an 8.5 average, while being 23rd in scoring at 12.1 points per game. He has recorded seven double-doubles this season, the second most in the Big West.

Redshirt sophomore Derin Saran ranks seventh in assists (3.6), 15th in rebounds (5.4) and 16th in minutes played (29.8) among Big West players. He has recorded 20 or more points four times this season, including a career and Anteater-high 29 versus Northern Iowa. He has led the Anteaters in scoring on eight occasions and topped the squad in rebounding seven times.