‘Eaters add to road kills

First-place UC Irvine completes Big West Conference road slate with 6-1 mark by besting Matadors.NORTHRIDGE -- The road to the regular season Big West Conference men’s basketball title now leads through Irvine. UC Irvine ensured as much with a 74-57 win at Cal State Northridge Saturday.

The victory maintains a two-game lead atop the conference standings for the Anteaters (19-9, 9-1 in the Big West), with four conference games -- all at home -- remaining.

The victory also completed the road portion of the Anteaters’ conference schedule, giving Coach Pat Douglass’ squad a 6-1 Big West road mark.

UCI’s only conference road loss came Thursday at second-place Pacific, which remains in striking distance after a win over Long Beach State on Saturday.

Pacific, the two-time defending regular-season conference champion is now 6-2 in the Big West. Long Beach State falls to 5-4 in conference.

Anteater players said they were determined to bounce back after Thursday’s 64-52 setback at UOP.

“We didn’t want [Thursday’s loss] to snowball into three, four or five in a row,” UCI senior guard Ross Schraeder said.

The Anteaters suffered through a five-game losing streak heading into conference play, then reeled off eight straight victories before heading to Stockton.

UCI made six three-pointers in the first 10:52 Saturday to take a 25-15 lead. UCI’s seventh three-pointer of the opening half, by Schraeder with 5:08 left before intermission, capped a 7-0 Anteater run that gave them a 34-21 advantage.

Irvine led, 41-27, at halftime and Northridge (8-11, 2-6), which swept three games with UCI last season, never got closer than 10.

The Anteaters, who entered the week third in NCAA Division I in three-point shooting (42.7%), were 7 of 16 from beyond the arc in the opening half. They finished 11 of 23 on three-point attempts, most of which came after swinging the ball to the weak side of Northridge’s half-court trap, or after dribble penetration by senior point guard Aaron Fitzgerald (nine assists).

Schraeder and Shamar Armstrong had three three-pointers apiece and Nic Campbell, who had made just one of his previous 14 three-point tries coming in, was 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.

Fitzgerald added a pair of three-pointers and joined Schraeder and Armstrong with 13 points to lead the winners.

UCI can clinch at least a share of the Big West crown with home wins next week over UC Santa Barbara (Thursday) and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Saturday).

Sophomore center Darren Fells had seven points and a game-high 11 rebounds, while sophomore teammate Patrick Sanders had eight points and eight boards.

Campbell finished with six points and five rebounds and freshman reserve Adam Templeton added eight points and five rebounds.

UCI outrebounded the Matadors, 42-26, to help overcome an 18-8 disadvantage in turnovers.

“Our guys are not afraid to play on the road,” Douglass said. “That’s pretty much the attitude our seniors have come in with. To come here and win is a tough assignment, so we feel good about our performance and the outcome.”

Northridge shot 32.7% from the field for the game and hit 5 of 19 three-pointers.

Big West Conference

UC Irvine 74,

Cal State Northridge 57

Score by Halves