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Men's Basketball:
UC Irvine Opens Big West Play Friday at Cal State Fullerton; Fells Named Big West Player of Week
Jan. 2, 2008
GAME #14: UC Irvine (5-8, 0-0) vs. Cal State Fullerton (7-4, 0-0) UC Irvine (5-8) opens its 2008 Big West Conference schedule Friday night against Cal State Fullerton at Titan Gym. This is the final game in a stretch of five consecutive road contests for UCI. The Anteaters have won their last seven Big West openers and are 14-16 all-time in those games.
UCI snapped a three-game losing streak this past Sunday with an 80-77, overtime win at Harvard. The Anteaters overcame an 18-point deficit with just over 14 minutes left in the second half. Senior center Darren Fells posted career highs of 24 points, five steals and four blocked shots in the victory. Senior guard Marcus McIntosh scored a career-high 13 points and senior forward Patrick Sanders also netted 13. The Anteaters lost last Friday night at South Carolina, 67-65, after leading by 13 in the second half. Fells and Sanders scored 20 points apiece versus the Gamecocks.
FELLS NAMED BIG WEST PLAYER OF WEEK: UCI senior center Darren Fells has been named the Big West Conference Player of the Week following his performances against South Carolina and Harvard. Fells scored 44 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and shot 67.9 percent from the field in the road split. He tied his original career high with 20 points in last Friday's 67-65 loss to South Carolina. Fells scored a career-high 24 points, hitting 10 of 14 field goals, and added career bests of five steals and four blocked shots in Sunday's 80-77, overtime win over Harvard. `EATER NOTES ► Starting with Fullerton Friday night, the Anteaters open the conference schedule facing the top three teams selected in the Big West preseason polls. In both the coaches' and media polls, UC Santa Barbara was selected first, Cal Poly second and the Titans third. UCI hosts UCSB and Cal Poly next week. ► Senior center Darren Fells leads the Big West Conference in field-goal percentage at .643. He was 19 of 28 (.679) in the two games last week and has shot 69.2 percent (45 of 65) over the past six contests. He has averaged 21 points over the past three games. Fells ranks 11th in career rebounds at UCI with 601. He is 10 boards behind No. 10 Ricky Butler and 13 away from Nos. 8 Jeff Von Lutzow and Jerry Maras. Fells, who leads the Anteaters with a 14.3 scoring average, is seventh in the league in scoring and fifth in steals per game (1.64). He tied a career high with five steals in the win at Harvard and also posted a personal-best four blocked shots against the Crimson. With 947 career points, Fells is on target to become the 11th UCI player to record 1,000 points and 600 rebounds in his Anteater career. ► Senior forward Patrick Sanders has averaged 15.7 points over the last six games and has shot 51 percent from the field in that span. Sanders ranks eighth in the Big West in scoring average (13.7) and ninth in field-goal percentage (.476). ► Junior forward Kevin Bland is second in the Big West in steals with an average of 2.08 per game and he ranks seventh in rebounding with a 5.9 average. Bland, who had a career-high six assists against South Carolina, pulled down 11 boards versus the Gamecocks for his third double-digit rebounding game of the season. ► Junior guard Brett Lauer ranks sixth in the Big West in three-point field goal percentage at .455. ► Senior guard Marcus McIntosh scored a career-high 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting in Sunday's win at Harvard. He played 32 minutes off the bench. ► UCI ranks second in the Big West Conference in assist/turnover ratio at 0.98. The Anteaters are third in the league in field-goal percentage (.457) and in scoring defense at 68.1. ► UCI recorded 21 steals in its two games on the East Coast last week. The Anteaters are averaging 8.2 steals per game to the opposition's 6.2. UCI averaged 4.4 steals per game last season. ABOUT CAL STATE FULLERTON: Coach Bob Burton's Titans are 7-4 overall entering Friday night's game. Junior guard Josh Akognon, a transfer from Washington State, leads Fullerton in scoring at 19.8 points per game (second in the Big West). He has hit 45 of 108 three-point shots, averaging 4.09 made per game. Akognon leads the league in free-throw percentage at .931. Senior guard Frank Robinson is averaging 16.7 points. He hit a buzzer-beating three last season in the Titans' 71-68 win at the Bren Center. Senior forward Scott Cutley is averaging 14.0 point and 7.1 boards while junior guard Marcus Crenshaw is averaging 10.5 points. The Titans lead the Big West in scoring offense at 83.5 and in scoring margin at +8.0. |
