UCI in CIT quarterfinals

The UC Irvine men’s basketball team will continue its pursuit of precedent at Louisiana Lafayette in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament on Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. PT.

Coach Russell Turner’s Anteaters (26-9) set the school single-season victories record by wining at North Dakota in the CIT first round, after which they received a second-round bye.

A victory Wednesday would give UCI two national postseason tournament wins for the first time, while also putting it in the CIT semifinals on Sunday.

UCI is in its fourth straight postseason, having played in the CIT in 2013, the NIT in 2014, and the NCAA Tournament last season. It earned one win in those previous three appearances (a home triumph over North Carolina High Point in 2013). UCI won first-round NIT games in 1986 and 1982 and won one game in the NCAA Division II Tournament in 1975, 1969 and 1968.

The Anteaters will attempt to make more history against a Rajin’ Cajuns squad that is 19-14 and playing in the CIT quarterfinals for the second straight season.

Louisiana Lafayette, which plays in the 11,550-seat Cajundome, defeated Furman, 80-72, in the second round, after handling Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 96-72, in the first round. The Rajin’ Cajuns are led by senior forward Shawn Long, who has 22 of his 74 career double-doubles this season and is averaging 19.2 points and 12.1 rebounds per game. Long tops all active Division I players in career double-doubles and is second with 2,332 career points. His 12.1 rebounds per contest rank No. 4 in Division I this season.

UCI junior guard Luke Nelson averages a team-best 13.9 points per game, while 7-foot-6 junior center Mamadou Ndiaye is averaging 12.2 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds per game.

Senior Mike Best has averaged 14.4 points in his last seven games, including a team-high 22 at North Dakota and junior reserve guard Jaron Martin has averaged 18 points in his last two games.

Senior Alex Young will play in his school-record 137th game. The UCI career assists leader (566) ranks No. 15 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.04).

UCI entered the week ranked seventh in the nation in field-goal-percentage defense (38.8%), and will hope to contain a Louisiana Lafayette squad that is averaging 80 points per game. UCI has won 57 of its last 59 games in which it held its opponent to 60 or fewer points.

The other quarterfinals Wednesday are Grand Canyon (27-6) at Coastal Carolina (20-11), and Ball State (21-13) at Columbia (22-10). Texas Arlington (23-13) visits the New Jersey Institute of Technology (19-14) on Thursday.

— Barry Faulkner