UC Irvine Hosts UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly To Close Out Regular Season
March 2, 2010
UCI CLOSES OUT REGULAR SEASON AT HOME: The UC Irvine women's basketball team (9-18, 6-8) will host the final two regular season games this week, entertaining UC Santa Barbara Wednesday (Mar. 3) at 7:00 p.m. followed by Cal Poly Saturday (Mar. 6) at 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, UCI will honor seniors KaJahna and Keyonna Johnson, Mary Has and Rebecca Maessen in a pre-game ceremony.
VERSUS THE OPPONENTS: UCI trails both UC Santa Barbara (23-51) and Cal Poly (16-23) in the series records. Both opponents have beaten the Anteaters in the lat seven meetings.
The last time UCI beat the Gauchos was a 82-69 performance on Feb. 16, 2006 in the Thunderdome. The last time UCI beat the Mustangs was Jan. 4, 2007 with an 84-73 victory in San Luis Obispo.
UCSB, who is 11-16 overall, is tied for fifth place in the Big West standings with a 8-7 mark. In the first meeting with UCSB, UCI led 45-37 with 6:08 to play before the Gauchos scored the next 13 points to take a three-point lead (48-45) with 1:48 to go. The Gauchos would hit six of their final eight free throws, while UCI managed just four points for the 54-48 final score. Mikah Maly-Karros led UCI with a game-high 20 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, while Jade Smith-Williams recorded 13 points. UCSB's Mekia Valentine totaled a team-high 16 points, eight rebounds and 11 blocks. Emilie Johnson recorded nine points followed by Meagan Williams and Chris Spencer with eight points each.
Cal Poly defeated UCI, 73-61 in the first meeting in San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly was led By Rachel Clancey with a game-high 24 points, shooting 8-11 from the floor and 7-8 from the line. Kristina Santiago had 19 points and a team-best 11 rebounds. Smith-Williams paced UCI with 14 points and six assists, while Maly-Karros added 12 points and nine rebounds and Jazmyne White had a career-high with 11 rebounds to go with eight points.
ON THE RADIO: Danny Lee will call both games this week on KUCI 88.9 FM. Wednesday's game will be on an internet only-basis while Saturday's game will be live. Games can be accessed over the internet by going to ucirvinesports.com.
ANTEATERS BEAT MATADORS TO CLINCH SPOT IN BIG WEST TOURNAMENT: UCI clinched a berth in the Big West Tournament with an 82-65 victory over Cal State Northridge last week. UC Irvine scored a season-high 46 points in the first half leading by 17 at the intermission (46-27). Cal State Northridge could get no closer than 15 points in the second half. The 17-point margin of victory is the largest of the year and the 82 points is the second most scored by UCI this season.
UCI used a balanced attack and was led by Mikah Maly-Karros with 20 points in 22 minutes of action, going 10-12 from the free throw line. Rebecca Maessen recorded 14 points followed by Jade Smith-Williams with 13 points and Keyonna Johnson with 11 points. Lauren Spinazze added eight points off the bench, while Jazmyne White recorded seven points and a team-high seven rebounds. Raquel Theus totaled a season-high five points in five minutes.
FINAL WEEK OF BIG WEST PLAY: Entering the final week of Big West play seeding for the Big West Tournament is still up in the air. The Big West Tournament will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center Mar. 10-13. Tickets may be purchased at the Convention Center Box Office by calling 714-765-8980.
BIG WEST CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Mar. 1)
TEAM BIG WEST OVERALL
UC Riverside 11-4 .733 14-14 .500
UC Davis 10-4 .714 18-9 .667
Cal Poly 10-5 .667 17-10 .630
Long Beach State 8-7 .533 12-16 .429
UC Santa Barbara 8-7 .533 11-16 .407
Cal State Fullerton 7-7 .500 13-15 .464
UC Irvine 6-8 .429 9-18 .333
Pacific 3-11 .214 5-21 .192
Cal State Northridge 2-12 .143 4-22 .154
NINE IS FINE: UCI owns a 9-18 overall and 6-8 Big West record. UCI's win total is the most since the 2005-06 team was 9-19 overall and 7-8 in league. The last time the Anteaters had double-digit wins dates back to the 2002-03 season when they were 17-12.
MALY-KARROS CLOSES IN ON SEASON FREE THROW RECORD: Mikah Maly-Karros moved into third in the UCI season record books for most free throws made with 129. She is just six shy of Natasha Parks' school record of 135 made in 1988-89. Maly-Karros is also eighth in free throws attempted with 161. Jade Smith-Williams is tied for ninth with 107 free throws made.
STEPPING UP TO THE LINE: UCI is shooting .694 from the free throw line making 451-650 in 27 games this season. The Anteaters were 340-531 (.640) overall from the line in 2008-09 and 403-604 (.667) in 2007-08. The school record for most free throws made in a season is 490 set in 1994-95.
LONG RANGE D: UCI leads the Big West Conference in three-point defense with a .364 mark.
30+: UCI has had two players (Maly-Karros, Smith-Williams) score 30 or more points twice this season. No other Big West team can make that claim.
FROM DOWNTOWN: UCI has averaged 5.8 three-pointers over the last four games. The Anteaters average 3.4 on the year. Eight different Anteaters have knocked down a three this year.
MALY-KARROS LEADS: Sophomore Mikah-Maly Karros leads the Big West in double-doubles with 12. She leads UCI with a 19.7 scoring and 11.6 rebound average. She holds the Big West top mark for points (35), free throws made (16) and attempted (23) in a game. She is second in rebounds with 17. Maly-Karros does not show up in the Big West overall statistics until she plays in 75% of the teams games, but she ranks second in scoring in league games only with a 19.6 mark and leads the conference in rebounding with a 11.6 average. She has totaled 20 or more points in seven of the last eight games.
PUTTIN IT IN THE HOOP: The Anteaters are averaging 63.3 points per game overall this year after managing just 49.5 a year ago. UCI has scored more than 60 points 18 times this year, while only doing it six times over 30 games in 2008-09.
SOO CLOSE: The Anteaters have lost seven games this year by six points or less, including four contests by three or less.
