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Men's Basketball:
UC Irvine Opens Season at USC Saturday Afternoon
Nov. 13, 2008 Complete Release in PDF Format
UC IRVINE (0-0) VS. USC (0-0)
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008 - 12:30 pm. Series Record: USC leads 4-1 Radio: KUCI/88.9 FM UC Irvine opens its 2008-09 regular-season schedule Saturday afternoon, facing USC in the Galen Center at 12:30 p.m. This is the sixth meeting in the series with the Trojans holding a 4-1 lead, winning the past four games. Saturday marks the first meeting between the universities at the Galen Center. UC IRVINE VS. THE PAC-10: The Anteaters are 10-28 all-time versus Pac-10 schools, with five of those wins coming on the road. UCI`s last victory over a Pac-10 team was a 79-63 win at Stanford Nov. 19, 2005. UCI'S LONE WIN VS. TROJANS: UCI's one win in the series with USC was 78-66 at the L.A. Sports Arena Dec. 13, 1983. Ben McDonald led the `Eaters with 18 points while current UCI assistant coach Tod Murphy scored 15 points and had seven rebounds. Bob Thornton also scored 15 points and pulled down 13 boards. Wayne Carlander led USC with 20 points. IN SEASON OPENERS: UCI is 20-23 in previous season openers, including a 74-61 victory over Loyola Marymount last year at Crawford Court. EAGLES, DUCKS NEXT WEEK: UCI hosts Eastern Washington next Wednesday (Nov. 19) and Oregon Friday (Nov. 21) in 7:00 p.m. games at the Bren Events Center. UC Irvine was 11-1 last season in the Bren Events Center and is 161-120 all-time. The Anteaters have won 79 of their last 102 games (.775) in the Bren dating back to February 2000. COACH DOUGLASS: Pat Douglass, in his 12th season as head coach at UC Irvine in 2008-09, is the longest-tenured and winningest coach in the 43-year history of the Anteater program. He became the program`s all-time leader in wins last season as he has compiled an Anteater record of 171-154 in the past 11 years. Douglass passed previous leader Bill Mulligan (163) in a 74-59 win over Pacific Feb. 14, 2008. Douglass led UCI to an 18-16 record last season, including wins in nine of the team's last 12 games. He guided the `Eaters to three straight victories in the Big West Conference Tournament and the university's first appearance in 14 years in the championship game. Over the past eight seasons, Douglass` Anteater teams have won 77 percent (80-24) of their home games and compiled a total of 142 wins for an average of 17.8 per season. Douglass leads all Big West Conference coaches with 547 victories at the four-year collegiate level. In his 27th season in the four-year ranks, he is 547-273. Douglass ranks 12th among the winningest, active Division I coaches by victories (547) and he is 28th in winning percentage (.667). ASSISTANT COACHES: Former UCI standout Tod Murphy is in his sixth season as an Anteater assistant coach while Ross Land and Rhett Soliday are each in their third years on the UCI staff. ABOUT USC: Tim Floyd is in his fourth year at USC, which finished with an overall record of 21-12 last season and tied for third in the Pac-10 with an 11-7 mark. The Trojans advanced to the 2088 NCAA Tournament, losing 80-67 to Kansas State in the first round. Junior forward Taj Gibson averaged 10.8 points and 7.8 rebounds last season when he was third-team All-Pac-10 and a member of the All-Pac-10 All-Defensive first team. Junior guard Dwight Lewis averaged 10.8 points in 2007-08 while junior guard Daniel Hackett averaged 8.6 points and 3.2 assists. Freshman forward DeMar DeRozan led USC with 21 points in its 85-64, exhibition win over Azusa Pacific Nov. 3. Gibson had 19 points and 14 rebounds. UCI DOWNS CAL POLY POMONA IN EXHIBITION: Junior wing Chad DeCasas scored a game-high 18 points in leading UC Irvine past Cal Poly Pomona, 69-42, in an exhibition game at the Bren Events Center last Saturday night. DeCasas hit 7 of 9 field goals, including 4 of 5 threes, and added four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Sophomore guard Patrick Rembert added nine points as 11 of the 12 UCI players who saw action scored. Junior center Zack Atkinson and freshman forward Eric Wise led the `Eaters with seven rebounds each, and Wise added eight points. Rembert and junior guard Michael Hunter led with four assists each. UCI shot 54.5 percent from the field in the first half to the Broncos' 20 percent (4 of 20) as the Anteaters built a 36-22 lead at intermission. A layup by Atkinson with 9:45 remaining gave UCI its largest lead of the night at 56-26. The `Eaters shot 51.1 percent from the field for the game to Cal Poly Pomona's 29.3 percent. UCI hit 9 of 22 three-pointers (40.9 percent) for the game while the Broncos hit just 1 of 9. UCI capitalized on a big second half in rebounding and pulled down 33 boards to the Broncos' 24 for the game.
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