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Men's Basketball:
Anteaters Host Idaho Saturday Night
Feb. 22, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format
GAME #26: UC Irvine (11-14, 6-6 Big West) vs. Idaho (6-18, 3-10 WAC) UCI WITH FINAL FIVE AT HOME: UC Irvine ends the regular season with five consecutive home games starting Saturday night with a non-conference contest against Idaho as part of O'Reilly/ESPNU BracketBusters Weekend. The Vandals were members of the Big West until departing for the WAC after the 2004-05 season. The Anteaters are 11-14 overall and 6-6 in the Big West Conference following an 85-76 loss at UC Riverside Thursday night. Junior guard Brett Lauer led UCI with a career-high 25 points, hitting 7 of 9 threes in the second half. The Vandals are 6-18 overall and 3-10 in the Western Athletics Conference. Idaho split a pair of home games last week, defeating Fresno State, 79-74 in overtime, and losing to Nevada, 85-72. UCI is 8-0 in on-campus games this season, including a Nov. 9 win over Loyola Marymount at Crawford Court. The Anteaters have one "home" loss, a 77-68 setback to Nevada Nov. 13 at the Anaheim Convention Center. ABOUT IDAHO: Coach George Pfeifer's Vandals are 6-18 overall and 3-10 in the WAC. Idaho split a pair of home games last week, defeating Fresno State, 79-74 in overtime, and losing to Nevada, 85-72. Junior forward Jordan Brooks leads the Vandals in scoring and rebounding with averages of 12.9 points and 6.1 boards. UCI leads the series 14-4, defeating the Vandals, 80-67, in the last meeting Mar. 9, 2005 in the first round of the Big West Tournament. Aaron Fitzgerald led the Anteaters with 30 points, the last time a UCI player reached that plateau. UCI has won the last four meetings with Idaho. FELLS 1ST IN BIG WEST, 24TH IN NATION: Senior center Darren Fells ranks first in the Big West and 24th in the nation in field-goal percentage at .579. Fells also leads the conference in offensive rebounds with a 2.74 average for all games and 3.42 in league contests. He ranks fifth in the Big West in rebounding for all games with a 6.7 average and he is sixth in steals at 1.61 per game. Fells' 14.5 scoring average for all games ranks ninth in the conference. Fells, who has 21 double-figure rebounding games in his career, has five double-doubles this season and 14 in his career. Fells, who had 19 points and eight rebounds in Wednesday's loss at UC Riverside, has averaged 10.3 rebounds in the last three games. Over the last eight games, Fells has converted 46 of 56 free throws (.821). He is just the fifth player in UCI history to record 1,000 points and 700 rebounds as he enters the Idaho game with 1,123 points and 703 boards. The last player to accomplish that feat was Adam Parada (2000-04), who accumulated 1,320 points and 775 boards. Fells ranks fifth in career rebounds and 16th in career points, 22 behind No. 15 Bill Moore. UCI CAREER SCORING UCI CAREER REBOUNDING Sanders leads the Big West Conference in three-point field goal percentage at .475 (29 of 61) for all games. He is averaging 17.5 points in Big West play to rank fourth in the conference. His overall scoring average of 15.4 ranks fifth in the league and he ranks ninth in free-throw percentage at .815 for all games. His eight points versus UC Riverside Wednesday marked the first time in his last 17 games that he did not reach double figures. LAUER HITS CAREER HIGHS: Junior guard Brett Lauer scored a career-high 25 points, including 23 in the second half, at UC Riverside Wednesday. He also hit a career-high seven threes in 10 attempts. The last UCI player to make at least seven triples in a game was Ross Schraeder, who was 8 of 13 in a 76-55 win at San Jose State Dec. 17, 2004. CAREER-HIGH 6 STEALS FOR HUNTER: Sophomore guard Michael Hunter recorded a career-high six steals along with 13 points and four assists in Wednesday's loss at UC Riverside. He was 5 of 7 from the field. THE McINTOSH IMPACT: Senior guard Marcus McIntosh has started the last five games, recording 15 assists and 14 steals in that span. IN THE BREN: UC Irvine is 7-0 this season in the Bren Events Center and 157-119 all-time. The Anteaters have won 75 of their last 97 games (.773) in the Bren dating back to February 2000. COACH DOUGLASS GAINS WIN NO. 164: Pat Douglass, in his 11th season as head coach at UC Irvine, passed Bill Mulligan last week in the 74-59 win over Pacific for the most wins in Anteater men's basketball coaching history. Douglass enters the Idaho game with a UCI record of 164-152 while Mulligan posted a 163-156 mark in 11 seasons.
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