Men’s Basketball: ‘Eaters thrash rivals

UC Irvine men’s basketball coach Russell Turner continually insists on progressive improvement. But after a second half in which the Anteaters made 19 of their first 23 field-goal attempts to produce a 90-67 thumping of Long Beach State on Wednesday, ascending to a higher peak just might be too much to ask.

UCI finished 19 for 24 after halftime (79.2%), as Luke Nelson made nine for 10 from the field and Mamadou Ndiaye was eight for nine to lead the winners with 25 and 20 points, respectively.

UCI (21-8, 10-3 in conference), which broke a second-place tie with the 49ers (15-13, 9-4), shot a season-best 64.2% from the field (34 for 53) and continued a recent offensive surge in which it has averaged 87.5 points the last four games. UCI scored in the 90s for the third time in those four games, while holding Long Beach State, which came in on a six-game winning streak, to 32.1% shooting (17 for 53).

UCI has swept the regular-season series with its Black & Blue rival.

Long Beach state senior guard Nick Faust, who had been averaging a conference-best 19.3 points against Big West foes, had a season-worst three points and was one for nine from the field. Faust, a Maryland transfer who had failed to score in double-figures just once before this season (six), missed all three of his second-half field-goal tries, only one of which hit the rim. Faust, who was four for 14 in the first meeting with UCI, but flourished at the foul line to produce 18 points, was five for 23 combined from the field against UCI this season (21.7%, worse than half the 44.2% clip he carried into Wednesday’s contest).

“It was an excellent performance from our team for 40 minutes,” Turner said. “That was as good as this team has played. What pleased me most was that, after the first seven minutes, we really picked up our defensive level and began to defend at the level we expect.”

Faust’s only field goal, a transition layup, opened the scoring 22 seconds in the contest.

“We made [Faust] a priority in both games,” Turner said. “I think he knows we work really hard to contest him and play him. And he had a couple early fouls that I think took him out of his rhythm and affected him.”

Long Beach defenders had little effect on Nelson, who made his final eight field-goal tries, including five three-pointers. He finished six for seven from three-point range to match his career-best output from threedom.

“Luke took over the game in one short span,” Turner said of a stint of 2:16 in which Nelson scored 10 straight UCI points. After an Ioannes Dimakopoulos three-pointer put UCI up, 59-50, Nelson connected again from beyond the arc to finalize his sizzling shooting performance with 10:37 left in the game.

“We have a team that can score and there are nights when my shot is an afterthought,” Nelson said. “It just so happened that it was my night and I made some shots.”

Ndiaye, who is shooting 80% from the field in his last three games (20 for 25) and is averaging 17.3 points during that stretch, had a game-high nine rebounds and blocked two shots.

Nelson had four assists and three rebounds without a turnover, while senior backcourt mate Alex Young had nine assists to go with 11 points.

Senior Mike Best and junior Jaron Martin added 10 points apiece for the winners.

Long Beach State, which surrendered more points only once this season (a 103-81 thumping at Duke), was 25 for 27 from the foul line, or it might have been worse.

UCI used a 19-5 spurt to take a 42-36 halftime lead and continued to expand the lead to the end. The 23-point margin was its biggest since a 77-53 home win over Loyola Marymount on Nov. 15, a span of 27 games.

Turner said he hopes the commanding win can translate in to a strong late-season run.

“We will propel ourselves, if we propel ourselves,” Turner said. “I’d like for us as a team to create some momentum with energy and passion and emotion and execution. If we can do that, then we’ve got a chance to be good. But this team has been consistently inconsistent, so hopefully we’ll continue to get better.”

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Big West Conference

UC Irvine 90, Long Beach State 67

LBSU – Riggins 4, Bibbins 26, Hammonds 18, Jones 7, Faust 3, Prince 4, Spencer 3, Levin 2.

3-pt. goals – Hammonds 2, Bibbins 2, Jones 2, Spencer 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – Hammonds 1.

UCI – Best 10, Ndiaye 20, Nelson 25, Young 11, Dunning 0, Martin 10, Dimakopoulos 8, Galloway 6.

3-pt. goals – Nelson 6, Young 3, Dimakopoulos 2, Martin 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

Halftime – 42-36, UCI.