‘Eaters up win streak to seven

Sanders’ 18 points, 10 rebounds lead UCI to its second win over Titans in five days. Irvine has 21/2-game lead in the Big West.IRVINE -- There were tough losses to a pair of Division II schools, and UC Irvine men’s basketball coach Pat Douglass has made reference to what he termed a tough early season schedule.

But after earning their seventh straight Big West Conference victory -- an 83-68 thumping of banged-up Cal State Fullerton Wednesday in front of a season-best home crowd of 2,880 at the Bren Events Center -- the Anteaters have clearly become simply tough to beat.

“They’ve got tough guys who play hard,” Fullerton Coach Bob Burton said of the Anteaters, who improved to 11-8, 7-0 in conference and take a 2 1/2 -game lead over second-place Long Beach State into Saturday’s road date with the 49ers. “They were tougher than us. We had our two best guys hurt, and they probably shouldn’t have played tonight. Then you come in and their guys are tougher than our guys. That’s a bad combination.”

Titans point guard Bobby Brown (lingering ankle sprain) and center Jamaal Brown (back spasms) -- who together had been producing 47% of their team’s points this season -- scored a combined 11 Wednesday. They were a combined 3 of 14 from the field with six rebounds, two assists and six turnovers.

But even if the two Titans stars had been at the top of their game, it likely wouldn’t have mattered against an Anteaters squad for which the stars appear to have aligned.

UCI had five scorers in double figures, led by sophomore forward Patrick Sanders, who had a career-high 18 points and tied his career-high with 10 rebounds.

Senior point guard Aaron Fitzgerald, whose 28 points keyed a 67-59 win at Fullerton Saturday, was the only starter not in double figures. But he chipped in nine assists to go with his six points and five rebounds.

Darren Fells (12 points on 5-of-7 field-goal shooting, and five rebounds) had one of his best games in weeks, Douglass said.

Freshman super sub Adam Templeton had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Veteran starters Nic Campbell and Ross Schraeder had 10 points apiece and backup guard Shamar Armstrong added seven.

Fitzgerald and Fells were given curtain-call exits by Douglass and even NBA legend and Memphis Grizzlies chief executive Jerry West -- on hand to scout Brown -- came away with a souvenir yellow T-shirt worn by the Completely Insane Anteaters student rooting section.

The 15-point victory margin was the third-highest for UCI this season, its best since a 16-point win at Stanford on Nov. 19.

“We’re getting so that when we get ahead, we continue to play,” Douglass said. “That has been an evolution for us and we need to keep building on it. Our guys are playing hard and they’re playing more possessions. We may not have as many players as [previous regular-season conference championship teams in 2000-01 and 2001-02], but our effort is as good or better.

“We have a stretch of three road games coming up at Long Beach, Pacific and Northridge that are going to be tough, but to be 7-0 in conference to this point -- you can’t do much better.”

Big West Conference

UC Irvine 83,

Cal State Fullerton 68

Score by Halves