Anteaters play for Big West crown
The first thing one notices about Russell Turner is a fit 6-foot-7 frame that would not look out of place in a room full of retired left tackles.
The second thing that stands out about the seventh-year UC Irvine men’s basketball coach is his passion.
Arguably the only thing that Turner loves more than college basketball is winning college basketball games.
With a victory at home on Saturday over UC Davis, Turner’s Anteaters (18-13, 11-4 in the Big West Conference) can claim the program’s third Big West regular-season title in four years and the No. 1 seed in the Big West Tournament.
Turner calls Saturday’s 3 p.m. showdown with the Aggies the biggest home game of his UCI tenure. And he is hoping that the 5,000-seat Bren Events Center will represent the college basketball atmosphere that Turner so reveres.
“I hope the community is excited about it,” Turner said of Saturday’s regular-season finale, at which seniors Luke Nelson, Jaron Martin and Ioannis Dimakopoulos will be recognized.
UC Davis entered Thursday’s conference home game with Hawaii at 18-11, 10-4. If it can earn its 11th victory in 11 home games this season, it would create a winner-take-all title duel on Saturday.
The Aggies defeated UCI, 74-65, in the two teams’ first meeting on Jan. 28 in Davis. UCI was without Nelson, a first-team All-Big West performer as a junior, in that game, in which it shot 16 free throws, 30 fewer than the Aggies.
Nelson, who has missed 18 games with two separate hamstring injuries, is averaging a team-best 16.2 points per game, 21.2 the last five games. With four three-pointers in Wednesday’s 68-56 win at UC Riverside, he became the school’s all-time leader in three-point field goals (240) and continues to rise up the top 10 in school annals in several other categories.
Davis, for which four of its five players honored on senior night Thursday are starters, is led by 6-6 junior Chima Moneke (15 points and 9.1 rebounds per contest), as well as senior Brynden Lemar (15.8 pgg) and sophomore reserve Siler Schneider (11 ppg).
Lemar, a three-time Big West Player of the Week, was shooting 40.2% from three-point range (66 for 164), while Schneider had connected on 46 of 117 three-point tries (39.3%) through Wednesday.
Lamunu legend grows
Claire Lamunu may be the most popular player in Golden State Athletic Conference history. The Vanguard University senior, who was named Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the GSAC after leading the No. 4-ranked Lions (27-2) to the GSAC regular-season title, is a native of Uganda who is averaging 22.9 points and 12.7 rebounds (second and third in the NAIA, respectively, and has 22 double-doubles this season.
My recent Facebook post celebrating her conference honors received nearly 600 likes, most of which came from Lamunu’s 3,000-plus Facebook friends.
“I’m not a Facebook-and-all-that-kind-of-stuff guy,” Vanguard Coach Russ Davis said. “But [Lamunu] has to be one of the most popular players we’ve ever had. She is just an incredible young lady, so anybody who has ever met her has just been a fan.
“She’s respected around the country and, being a former national team player for Uganda, she has a lot of fans over there who watch the [Vanguard games on the Internet]. She’s kind of like an ambassador.”
In addition to her on-court accolades, which figure to include NAIA All-American and possibly even NAIA Player of the Year, Lamunu will be Vanguard’s female honoree for the GSAC Hamlow Champion of Character Award, presented Sunday.
The award, named for Cliff Hamlow, a former GSAC commissioner, goes to one male and female athlete from each GSAC school who demonstrates outstanding athletic achievement, campus and community leadership, future ambition, and embraces the NAIA Champions of Character program’s five core character values of respect, responsibility, integrity, sportsmanship and servant leadership.
Davis says no slight
Davis said he is OK with not earning the GSAC Coach of the Year honor this season, which some have viewed as a slight.
It’s only the second time in the last 11 seasons in which the team that at least shared the conference title did not have the coach of the year.
Biola’s Alan Nakamura, whose Eagles finished tied for second but were the only conference team to beat Vanguard, earned the honor.
“I think Alan did a great job with that team, and I thought he was a great choice,” Davis said. “Alan is a great guy, who is the kind of guy you want to root for.”
Davis, soon to be inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame, has been named GSAC Coach of the Year eight times and has guided the Lions to 12 conference regular-season titles.
Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5
