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Men's Basketball:
UC Irvine Hosts USF Saturday Night
Dec. 11, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
GAME #9: UC Irvine (3-5) vs. San Francisco (4-5) Radio: KUCI/88.9 FM UC Irvine (3-5) closes out its brief two-game homestand against San Francisco (4-5) Saturday night at 7:05 in the Bren Events Center. The Anteaters snapped a four-game losing streak with an 87-53 win over Alaska-Fairbanks last Saturday as senior forward Patrick Sanders led four UCI players in double digits with 19 points. Senior center Darren Fells added 17 points (8 of 10 FG), junior guard Brett Lauer scored 12 points (4 of 6 threes) and senior guard Chuma Awaji had 11 points in 18 reserve minutes. The 34-point win was UCI's largest margin of victory since a 94-40 triumph over Mississippi Valley State Nov. 11, 2005, at the 2K Sports Classic in Winston-Salem, N.C. Saturday's win was the largest home victory since a 106-69 defeat of Cal State Dominguez Hills in the 2004-05 season opener Nov. 19, 2004. Following Saturday's game, UCI hits the road for the remainder of the month. The Anteaters journey to Texas for a pair of games prior to Christmas, facing Sam Houston State Dec. 20 and 14th-ranked (A.P.) Texas A&M Dec. 22. UCI travels to South Carolina Dec. 28 and Harvard Dec. 30 for games against two opponents the Anteaters defeated at home last season. `EATER NOTES ► Saturday night marks Pat Douglass' 300th game as head coach at UC Irvine. He enters the USF contest with an Anteater record of 156-143, eight victories from passing Bill Mulligan for all-time wins by a UCI men's basketball head coach. Ironically, Coach Douglass' first game at UCI was against USF, a 75-59 loss Nov. 15, 1997 in the Bren Center. ► UC Irvine is 152-119 all-time in the Bren Events Center. The Anteaters have won 70 of their last 92 games (.761) in the Bren dating back to February 2000. ► UCI is 28th in the nation (of 328 teams) this week in free-throw percentage at .750. The Anteaters are 49th in three-point field goal percentage at .399. ► Senior center Darren Fells ranks 13th in career rebounds at UCI with 576. He is nine behind No. 12 Mark Nelson and 10 away from No. 11 Nick Sanden. ► UCI ranks first in the Big West Conference in assist/turnover ratio at 1.02. The Anteaters are second in field-goal percentage (.468) and in free-throw percentage (.750). ► Senior center Darren Fells ranks first in the Big West in field-goal percentage at .605. He was 12 of 18 from the floor in the past two games. Senior forward Patrick Sanders is ninth at .459 and he ranks 10th in scoring with a 12.9 average. ► Junior guard Brett Lauer leads the Big West in three-point field goal percentage at .619 (13 of 21). He made 7 of 9 threes in the last two games. ► Senior guard Chuma Awaji ranks second in the conference in free-throw percentage (.864), junior forward Kevin Bland is second in steals (2.00 per game) and sophomore guard Michael Hunter is fifth in assists (3.50 per game). ► UCI made an average of 10.5 three-point field goals in the last four games after averaging 4.8 in the season's first four contests. UCI has shot 60 percent (24 of 40) from three-point range in the last two games. ► Though the opposition has outrebounded UCI this season by an average of 32.0 to 28.3 per game, the Anteaters have outrebounded their opponents in three of the past four games. RODENBERG LEAVES PROGRAM: Junior forward Adam Rodenberg, who is having surgery over the holiday break in Iowa to repair a hernia, has requested, and been granted, his release with intentions of transferring to a school closer to his hometown of Garnavillo, Iowa. The 6-7 Rodenberg, a transfer from Kirkwood (Iowa) Community College, averaged 6.8 points and 2.7 rebounds for the Anteaters. He started the season's first six games, scoring a high of 14 points in the season-opening, 74-61 win over Loyola Marymount Nov. 9. ABOUT USF: Coach Jessie Evans' Dons are 4-5 on the season entering Saturday night's game. USF is coming off a 67-65 home win over Weber State last Saturday. The Dons have played two other Big West opponents this season, losing on the road to UC Santa Barbara, 74-69, and at home to Pacific, 84-57. Sophomore forward Dior Lowhorn leads USF in scoring and rebounding at 22.8 points and 7.7 boards per game. He sat out last season after transferring from Texas Tech, where he averaged 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds as a freshman. Junior guard Manny Quezada is averaging 16.4 points and 4.0 assists. He scored 17 points and added six assists in USF's 76-62 victory over UCI last Feb. 17 in a BracketBuster game in San Francisco.
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