UCI men aim to avenge earlier loss to UC Davis

UC Irvine at UC Davis

When: Tonight, 7

Where: The Pavilion

Breakdown: Visiting UC Irvine (8-15, 5-5 in the Big West Conference) and the Aggies (10-13, 5-5) make up half of a four-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings, two games behind first-place Long Beach State ... UC Davis defeated the Anteaters, 88-85, at Bren Events Center Jan. 17 and knocked off Long Beach State, 82-76, last week ... Senior guard Vince Oliver had a career-high 33 points in the upset of Long Beach State and leads the team at 15.4 points per game ... Joe Harden (14.0), Mark Payne (11.4) and Dominic Calegari (10.7) are also averaging in double figures ... Harden, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Notre Dame, is averaging 7.4 rebounds per game, second best in the conference ... UCI is paced by 6-5 freshman center Eric Wise (13.3 ppg and 5.8 rpg), while junior guard Michael Hunter is averaging 11 ppg and senior Kevin Bland chips in 10.3 ppg and 6.7 rpg ... UCI, which has lost three of its last five, leads the Big West and ranks No. 26 nationally in three-point accuracy (.38.5%) ... UCI is No. 17 among 330 NCAA Division I programs in fewest turnovers per game (11.8). UCI has had nine games of fewer than 10 turnovers this season. Spanning the second half of the win over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the first half of a loss to UC Santa Barbara Saturday, UCI had three turnovers.

— Barry Faulkner