Men’s Basketball: UCI perfect at home
About three weeks ago, UC Irvine started the tallest lineup in college basketball history. Saturday night at home against UC Riverside, the Anteaters showed off a different kind of length.
UCI made seven of its first eight three-point attempts in the opening 12:04 and went on to record an 84-68 Big West Conference victory in front of a season-best Bren Events Center crowd of 4,233.
Junior guard Luke Nelson, who was six for eight from the field in Thursday’s home win over UC Davis, netted his first six shots on Saturday, including four three-pointers, en route to 18 first-half points.
Nelson finished with a career-high 29 points on 10-for-15 shooting from the field to help UCI (13-5, 2-0 in conference) improve to 7-0 at home this season. Nelson was five for five from the foul line as UCI netted 22 of 28 free-throw attempts (78.6%).
It was the third straight home game for UCI, following a stretch of 11 games in which it played 10 on unfamiliar floors over just more than a month. The increased comfort level on its home floor is apparent, as it made 15 of 24 combined three-point tries over the last two games.
The ‘Eaters connected on 10 of their first 14 field-goal tries (71.4%) and sank 16 of 26 in the first 20 minutes (61.5%) against Riverside.
UCI finished at 56.3% from the field (27 for 48), including eight for 12 from threedom.
After its initial barrage from the perimeter, UCI shifted its focus to attacking inside, with 7-foot-6 junior Mamadou Ndiaye producing a pair of thunderous dunks to add to his 12 points and seven rebounds.
UCI finished with a 30-22 advantage on points in the paint.
Senior Mike Best had eight points and seven rebounds, while senior guard Alex Young had nine points, four assists, four rebounds one steal and two blocked shots.
Junior Jaron Martin made two of three three-point tries on his way to 11 points off the bench for the winners.
Riverside shot 36.1% from the field (22 for 61) and was seven for 23 from beyond the arc,
The Highlanders (9-9, 0-2) collected 13 of the game’s 15 offensive rebounds to post a 36-33 advantage on the glass.
UCI, which led by as many as 21, committed 12 of the game’s 19 turnovers.
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Big West Conference
UC Irvine 84, UC Riverside 68
UCR – Boezeman 5, Larsson 4, Bland 20, Johnson 15, Thames 4, Johns 15, Jones 3, Dijkstra 2.
3-pt. goals – Bland 5, Jones 1, Boezeman 1.
Fouled out – Johns.
Technicals – None.
UCI – Best 8, Smith 5, Ndiaye 12, Nelson 29, Young 9, Martin 11, Dimakopoulos 5, Saprykinas 4, Galloway 1.
3-pt. goals – Nelson 4, Martin 2, Smith 1, Saprykinas 1.
Fouled out – Ndiaye.
Technicals – None.
Halftime – 43-29, UCI.