UCI aims for No. 4 seed in Big West tournament

When: Today, 5 p.m.

Where: Cal State Fullerton

Breakdown: The UC Irvine men’s basketball team is hoping to shave a game off its Big West Conference Tournament schedule by defeating host Cal State Fullerton in the Big West regular-season finale ... A win by UCI (11-18, 7-8 in conference), and a loss by UC Santa Barbara at home against Long Beach State tonight, would make UCI the No. 4 seed in the tournament, which would mean a first-round bye. A loss by UCI would put the Anteaters into the bottom four seeds in the eight-team tournament. Those bottom four teams would square off against one another (No. 5 vs. No. 8 and No. 6 vs. No. 7), on the opening night of the tournament, Wednesday at the Anaheim Convention Center ... The Anteaters defeated Cal State Fullerton, 78-74, in overtime in UCI’s conference opener Jan. 3 at the Bren Events Center ... UCI has won three of its last four, including a 78-72 overtime triumph over visiting UC Riverside on Feb. 28 ... UCI is 37 of 75 from three-point range (49.3%) in its last four games and ranks No. 9 nationally with a 40.4% accuracy rate beyond the arc ... Eric Wise, the top-scoring freshman in the conference, leads UCI at 14.0 points per game, followed by junior guard Michael Hunter (11.6) and senior Kevin Bland (10.2) ... Wise had a career-high 25 points in the first Fullerton game, in which senior Brett Lauer scored a career-high 27 ... Senior guard Josh Akognon leads the Titans (14-15, 7-8) with a conference-best 23.8 ppg.

— Barry Faulkner