Anteaters open Big West Conference play at home

Who: Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine

When: Tonight, 7 p.m.

Breakdown: The Anteaters (2-10), open Big West Conference play with a rematch of last season’s conference tournament final against the Titans (6-7, 0-1 in conference) ... UCI is winless in four home games this season and has lost five straight at the Bren Events Center, dating back to the regular-season finale last year against Cal State Fullerton ... It had won 11 straight at the Bren, before the aforementioned loss to the Titans ... The Titans are coming off a 90-64 thrashing at the hands of visiting Cal State Northridge in their conference opener Monday. It was the biggest margin of defeat at home by a Cal State Fullerton team during Bob Burton’s six seasons as coach ... The Titans have won the last five meetings with UCI and lead the all-time series, 47-39 ... Burton is 7-4 against UCI Coach Pat Douglass, 3-2 at the Bren ... Senior Kevin Bland leads UCI in scoring (12.2 per game) and rebounding (7.2 per contest) ... Freshman Eric Wise (11.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg) is also key for UCI ... Fullerton is led by senior guard Josh Akognon (24.1 ppg), though he had a string of 24 straight games in double figures snapped with only eight points against Northridge. He ranked third in the nation in scoring through Dec. 21 ...Only the 1996-97 UCI team that finished 1-25 opened worse than 0-4 at home (0-6).

— Barry Faulkner