UCI guard named conference Player of the Week

Aaron Fitzgerald is honored by the Big West Conference after leading Anteaters to three victories last week.After a week in which UC Irvine’s men’s basketball team solidified its spot atop the Big West Conference standings, the Anteaters’ chief playmaker was honored by the conference.

Aaron Fitzgerald was named the conference’s Player of the Week after a trio of strong performances in UCI victories. The senior point guard averaged 15.7 points and seven assists in the three games.

Fitzgerald scored 16 second-half points in a 70-61 win against preseason conference favorite Pacific on Sunday. He added seven assists and six rebounds, committing just three turnovers.

“I thought Aaron had a great second half,” Douglass said after the Pacific game Sunday. “I thought he had a great weekend.”

Two days prior, the senior had 16 points and nine assists in the Anteaters’ 76-62 victory over Cal State Northridge. Even more importantly, he was the main defender on conference leader scorer Mike Efevberha, holding him to 10 points -- less than half his season average of 21.7 points per contest.

Afterward, UCI Coach Pat Douglass dubbed it Fitzgerald’s best collegiate game in terms of play at both ends of the court.

Fitzgerald opened the week with 15 points and five assists in a 70-66 win at UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 9. The Anteaters committed a school-record low four turnovers in the game.

Although it didn’t happen within the one-week timeframe, the Seattle native’s string of good performances started on Jan. 7, when he hit the game-winning three-pointer in the Anteaters’ 69-67 come-from-behind victory at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Fitzgerald had nine points, eight assists and two steals in the game.

UCI has won four in a row, its longest winning streak of the season. The string of victories followed a five-game skid that stretched from mid-December till earlier this month.

The 4-0 start is the Anteaters’ best beginning to a conference season since the 2001-02 campaign, when they opened 6-0 and eventually finished second in the Big West.

Fitzgerald leads the Big West Conference in assists at 6.3 per game, and is averaging 12.3 points and 3.5 turnovers per game. In conference play, his numbers have gotten even better -- 14 points and 7.3 assists, against just 2.5 turnovers, per contest.

The Anteaters will take to the road for their next two games, playing at UC Riverside on Thursday night and at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday afternoon. The Thursday contest will be televised on KVMD-TV.