UCI’s Fitzgerald, Ned get top honors

UC Irvine senior point guard Aaron Fitzgerald and UCI junior guard Angie Ned have been named first-team All-Big West Conference in men’s and women’s basketball, respectively.

UCI’s Kelly Cochran, a freshman, was named to the women’s second team, as well as being selected to the All-Freshman team.

UCI’s Adam Templeton was named to the men’s All-Freshman team, while the Anteaters’ Ross Schraeder, a senior, and Darren Fells, a junior, received honorable mention.

Fitzgerald averaged a conference-leading 6.4 assists per game and ranks sixth in the nation in that category. His 180 assists are the third-most in UCI single-season history in the program’s 41 seasons.

Fitzgerald is fourth in UCI career assists with 332. He is averaging 12.0 points on the season and he is shooting 46.2% from the field.

The first Anteater men’s player to receive first-team recognition since Jordan Harris in 2003, Fitzgerald leads the Anteaters with 34 steals.

Ned, a second-team honoree last season, becomes only the sixth UCI women’s player to earn first-team accolades. She is the first Anteater on the women’s first team since Cindy Oparah in 2002.

Ned is averaging a team-best 13.1 points per game, which ranks fourth among Big West players.

Her 87% free-throw shooting leads all Big West players.

Cochran, a forward, is sixth in the conference in scoring (13.8), third in rebounding (8.1), second in field-goal percentage (52.8) and third in blocks (1.4) in conference games.

Templeton is averaging 4.5 points and 2.7 rebounds for all games and 6.4 points and 4.1 boards against Big West competition. He is shooting 57% from the field in conference games and 53% from the field overall.

Schraeder, UCI’s career leader in three-pointers with 230, also received honorable mention last season. He is averaging 13 points per game and is shooting 47% from three-point range.

Fells is averaging 9.6 points and a team-leading 7.1 rebounds.

The UCI men (16-12), who finished second in the Big West, open the Big West Tournament in Friday’s semifinals at the Anaheim Convention Center.