College men’s basketball: UCI heads to Northridge

Amara Aguilar

This game isn’t about revenge. It’s about a challenge, UC Irvine

men’s basketball Coach Pat Douglass said.

The Anteaters (17-7, 10-3 in the Big West), tied for first in the

conference with Utah State, will take on Cal State Northridge at the

Matadome tonight at 5:35. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Net

West 2.

In the first round of conference play, Northridge (8-13, 7-5) stunned the Anteaters, 73-72, in overtime at the Bren Events Center Jan. 19 to

snap UCI’s school-record 19-game home winning streak.

“I think our players recognize that Northridge beat them, but usually

our kids respond when they know they have a challenge,” Douglass said.

“Now we’re tied with Utah for first. We’re going on the road. It’s coming

to a close here (in conference). If we are going to come out on top we

have to make a good run. We have five tough games. Our team plays well

when we have our backs against the wall.”

The Anteaters are coming off a narrow 62-61 loss in front of a sold

out crowd at home to Utah State Saturday. UCI rallied from a 16-point

deficit at halftime, but couldn’t hit an outside shot in its final two

possessions to put the game away.

“We’ve discussed that game a lot,” Douglass said. “Granted, that game

is over, but we discussed our preparation and mindset we had coming out.

We lacked aggressiveness against a zone. We discussed that we needed to

look inside more.”

Against the Aggies, sophomore center Adam Parada was held scoreless in

the first half and finished with 10 points in the game. He is second on

UCI’s squad in scoring with a 12.8 points per game average. He is also

averaging 6.9 rebounds per game.

The leader offensively for the Anteaters is the school’s all-time

leading scorer, senior guard Jerry Green (20.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg). Junior

forward Jordan Harris (11.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg) has also been an offensive

threat.

Sophomore forward Stanislav Zuzak (9.1 ppg) and junior guard Mike Hood

(8.2 ppg) will also look to contribute against the Matadors.

Northridge is led by Markus Carr (17.1 ppg), who scored a career-high

31 points in the Matadors’ last win over UCI. Carr leads the team in

assists (4.9 per game) and steals (2.67 per game).

“They are very athletic and have a deep bench,” Douglass said. “They

run a lot of players and have a variety on defense. We’re preparing to

get different looks. We’ll see what works in that particular contest. We

respect the way they play. They are going to create a lot of turnovers.”

The Matadors are averaging 20 turnovers per game, the most in the Big

West. Northridge also leads the conference in steals, with 10.38 per

game, and is tied for first for offensive rebounds, with 13.1 per game.

UCI paces the conference in field goal percentage (.482) and is ranked

14th in the nation in that category.

Big West Conference standings

Utah State 10-3

UC Irvine 10-3

Cal Poly 8-5

UC Santa Barbara 8-5

Cal State Northridge 7-5

Pacific 6-6

Idaho 5-8

UC Riverside 4-8

Long Beach State 4-9

Cal State Fullerton 1-11

This week’s schedule

Tonight

UC Irvine at Cal State Northridge, 5:35 p.m.

Long Beach State at Pacific, 7 p.m.

Cal State Fullerton at Utah State, 7:05 p.m.

UC Riverside at Idaho, 7 p.m.

Saturday

UC Irvine at Pacific, 7:05 p.m.

Long Beach State at Cal State Northridge, 7:05 p.m.

UC Riverside at Utah State, 7:05 p.m.

Cal State Fullerton at Idaho, 7:05 p.m.

Cal Poly at UC Santa Barbara, 7 p.m.