Anteaters look to clinch out-right Big West regular season title with win Thursday night

UCI players gather for a team meeting in a game this season. (Photo courtesy UCI Athletic Media Relations)

With a victory Thursday night at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Irvine’s men’s basketball team can clinch the Big West regular season title outright and the No. 1 seed at the Big West Tournament.

The Anteaters (19-10, 11-2) can also reach 20 wins for the 11th time in the Division 1 program history. The game will be televised live on ESPN-U at 8 p.m.

Cal Poly enters the game 7-20 overall and 4-9 in the Big West.

UCI, which takes a four-game winning streak into this week’s games, also hosts UC Santa Barbara Saturday night at 7 at the Bren Center on homecoming. The game is a sellout.

Coach Russell Turners’s UCI team has won at least a share of the regular-season five out of the last seven seasons. Over the last five years, the Anteaters are 61-16 in Big West play.

The Anteaters clinched at least a share of the Big West regular-season title, for the second-straight yearwith an 87-64 win over Cal State Northridge Saturday.

Evan Leonard made a career high six 3-pointers, going 6 of 7 to finish with a team-high 18 points. He also had four assists and a steal. He is averaging a team-high 13.9 points per game in conference play and has scored in double-digits in 13-straight games

Brad Greene had his seventh double double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Greene has led UCI in rebounding in seven-consecutive games and has tallied double-digit rebounds in five of the last seven games,  and a Big West best nine times this season

The Anteaters led by as many as 32 points in the second half and went on to win their 11th consecutive game against Cal State Northridge.

UCI’s senior class of Leonard, Tommy Rutherford, Eyassu Worku and John Edgar Jr. have won 89 games, producing an 89-48 overall record together and a 49-12 record in the Big West over the last four seasons.

Source: UCI Athletic Media Relations