GAME #15
Morgan State (3-9) at UC Irvine (7-7)
Thursday, January 2, 2014 – 7:30 p.m.
Bren Events Center (5,000) – Irvine, California
Series Record: First meeting
Radio: KUCI/88.9 FM (Mark Roberts, 20th Season, & Steve Henkle)
UC IRVINE LOOKS TO SETTLE IN AT HOME AS 2014 BEGINS
● UC Irvine, which has played six of its last seven games on the road, hosts Morgan State Thursday night to begin a stretch of five of the next seven contests at home.
● Fourth-year head coach Russell Turner's Anteaters host San Diego Christian Saturday evening in the last non-conference game before opening Big West play next Thursday at Long Beach State.
● Thursday night marks the first meeting between UCI and Morgan State. The Bears, coached by Todd Bozeman, are coming off recent West Coast losses to Cal State Northridge, 86-80, last Friday and Oregon, 97-76, on Sunday.
● UCI, 7-7 on the season, lost 74-61 at Arizona State last Saturday in the Anteaters' fourth meeting against a Pac-12 school this season.
● Junior forward Will Davis II and 7-6 freshman center Mamadou Ndiaye each recorded a double-double at ASU. Davis had 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting and added 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season and eighth of his career. Ndiaye registered his first double-double with 12 points (5-of-8 shooting) and 12 rebounds, plus he added four blocked shots, giving him 49 on the season. Freshman guard Luke Nelson also scored 12 points and he had a game-high five assists.
● The 'Eaters, who trailed by as many as 17 points in the second half, cut the margin to six on two occasions within the last four minutes.
● UCI is 3-3 at home and 4-4 on the road this season.
UC IRVINE NOTES
● UCI is 127-51 (.713) in the Bren Center dating back to February 2000. UCI is 208-148 all-time in the Bren and 3-3 this season.
● The Bren Center marks its 27th anniversary in January. The center opened Jan. 8, 1987, when the 'Eaters defeated Utah State, 118-96, on the strength of 43 points by Scott Brooks, the current head coach of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder.
● UCI is 6-0 this season when the opposition shoots under 40 percent from the field.
● UCI is 5-2 when shooting at least 50 percent from the field this season. The Anteaters shot a season-best 61.5 percent in the Dec. 21 victory at Denver.
● UCI is 7-3 when outrebounding its opponent this season.
● Senior guard Chris McNealy has scored 987 points in his career as he closes in on becoming the 23rd player in Anteater history to score 1,000 points. He is averaging 11.9 points on the season.
● McNealy is tied with Stanislav Zuzak for 14th in UCI history with 109 career threes and he is 15th with 235 assists.
● Junior forward Will Davis II leads the Anteaters in scoring (12.1) and rebounding (7.2). He is UCI's career leader in blocked shots with 160, including a school single-season record 88 last year. He ranks first in the Big West Conference this season with a field-goal percentage of .609.
● Davis is 19 of 28 (.679) from the field in the last three games.
● Davis was named MVP of the 2K Sports Classic Irvine Subregional (Nov. 22-24) after averaging 11.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in three games.
● Davis earned last season's Big West Conference's "Best Defensive Player" Award and was named to the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Defensive All-America team.
● Freshman guard Luke Nelson is averaging 12.0 points and he leads UCI with 28 threes and 16 steals. He has 47 assists for the season, including 15 in the last three games.
● Sophomore point guard Alex Young is averaging 9.4 points and he leads UCI with 57 assists. Young broke UCI's freshman single-season record with 144 assists last season when he was named Big West Conference co-Freshman of the Year and also was selected to the Mid-Major Freshman All-America team.
● Freshman center Mamadou Ndiaye, the nation's tallest player at 7-6, leads UCI and the Big West with 49 rejections. He ranks sixth in the nation as of Monday in total blocks (49) and is 11th in blocked shots per game at 3.5. He is shooting 72.9 percent on 51 of 70.
● Ndiaye is 18 of 22 (.818) from the field in the past four games. After averaging 17 minutes of playing time in the first 10 games, he has averaged 26 in the last four contests.
● Ndiaye had a school and Big West-record 10 blocked shots in the 81-58 win over Eastern Washington Nov. 24. He had nine blocks, along with 18 points and eight rebounds, in the 86-72 victory at Washington Nov. 14.
● Junior guard Travis Souza is shooting 45.2 percent (19/42) from three-point range to rank fourth in the Big West.
● UCI ranks first in the Big West in field-goal percentage defense (.405) and blocked shots (6.21 per game).
● The Anteaters are 18th in the nation in assists per game (16.79) and 21st in blocked shots per game (6.21).ABOUT MORGAN STATE
● Morgan State, under eighth-year head coach Todd Bozeman, is located in Baltimore, Md.
● The Bears, 3-9 this season, competed in the 2009 and 2010 NCAA Tournaments, and the 2008 NIT. The Bears have advanced to the championship game of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament five times in the past seven seasons.
● Senior guard Justin Black leads the Bears in scoring at 19.0 points per game and he has 26 steals in 12 games. Ian Chiles, a 7-2 senior center, is averaging 14.7 points and 5.3 rebounds. He has 33 blocks on the season.
● Senior guard Anthony Hubbard is averaging 10.4 points and he leads Morgan State in rebounding at 5.5 boards per game.
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