Men’s basketball: Logan’s Run

Amara Aguilar

Get ready for a showdown. It features two of the top teams in the

Big West Conference. One finished first in the standings last year and

the other won the conference tournament.

The UC Irvine men’s basketball team, which sits at the top of the Big

West standings, travels to second-place Utah State for a conference duel

tonight at 8:05 in Logan, Utah.

The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.

The Anteaters (10-4, 3-0 in the Big West) are riding a five-game win

streak and have pulled out home conference wins over Long Beach State,

Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside. They are the only undefeated team

in Big West competition.

The Aggies, last year’s Big West tournament champions, will have

home-court advantage. Utah State (11-2, 3-1) has won 31 straight games at

home and this season defeated Cal State Northridge, University of Pacific

and UC Santa Barbara, but was stunned by Cal Poly in a 61-58 loss on Jan.

3 in San Luis Obispo.

“(Utah Coach) Stew Morrill has a remarkable program,” UCI Coach Pat

Douglass said. “They don’t beat themselves. To go to Logan is very

different. They have one of the best home-court advantages in the

country. The crowd is loud and boisterous.”

Although senior guard Jerry Green leads the pack for the Anteaters

with a 22.6 points scoring average, UCI has received support in spurts

from its other starters consisting of sophomore center Adam Parada,

junior forward Jordan Harris, sophomore forward Stanislav Zuzak and

junior guard Mike Hood.

Parada matched a career high with 20 points against UC Riverside.

Harris scored a UCI career-high 30 points against Long Beach State on

Dec. 22. Zuzak pitched in with a career-high 22 points against UCLA on

Dec. 15 and Hood scored a career-high 16 points against Boston University

on Dec. 29.

Morrill, who has been the Utah State coach since 1998, isn’t taking

the Anteaters lightly. “We have great respect for their program,” Morrill

said. “They have a lot of weapons and a lot of people who are tough to

guard.”

Utah State has a few weapons of its own to counter with. Junior

forward Desmond Penigar leads the Aggies in scoring (18.2 ppg) and

rebounds (6.5 rpg).

Senior guard Tony Brown is averaging 16.5 points per game and is solid

from the three-point line. He has made 30 threes in 13 games.

The Anteaters defeated the Aggies, 56-51, at the Bren Events Center

last year and lost, 67-52, in Utah.