UC Irvine Hosts Marist Saturday at 4:00 P.M.

Feb. 19, 2010

Game #28

UC Irvine (11-16) vs. Marist (1-25)
Saturday, February 20, 2010 - 4:05 p.m.
Bren Events Center (5,000) - Irvine, Calif.

Series Record: First meeting

Radio: KUCI/88.9 FM (Mark Roberts, 16th season)

`EATERS HOST RED FOXES: UC Irvine steps out of Big West Conference play Saturday to host Marist in a non-conference game as part of the BracketBusters series.

Marist, located in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

Two Marist players are from the Los Angeles area: freshman guard Devin Price (St. Bernard's) and sophomore guard Mike Taylor (Verbum Dei).

Second-year head coach Chuck Martin's squad is led in scoring by freshman guard Candon Rusin at 9.8 points per game.

UCI returns to Big West play next Saturday (Feb. 27), hosting Cal State Northridge in the Homecoming game and home finale. The game will be televised on FSN Prime Ticket.

UCI closes out the regular season on the road at UC Santa Barbara Mar. 3 and Cal Poly Mar. 6.

The `Eaters, 4-9 in league play, are tied for eighth in the Big West with UC Riverside. Northridge is seventh at 5-7.

The top eight teams advance to the Big West Tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center Mar. 10-13.

STATS LEADERS: Sophomore forward Eric Wise leads UCI in scoring (15.8), rebounding (6.0) and assists (3.2). He ranks in the top 10 of five Big West statistical categories. Wise has scored at least 20 points nine times this season.

Senior guard Michael Hunter is averaging 13.6 points and has hit 66 threes on the season. Hunter ranks second all-time at UCI with 222 threes, third in steals (155) and 10th in assists (283).

Junior guard Darren Moore is averaging 10.2 points. He has averaged 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in the last four games.