UCI opens at North Dakota in CIT

The UC Irvine men’s basketball team will play at North Dakota on Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

The Anteaters, regular-season co-champions of the Big West Conference (25-9), who were upset by Long Beach State in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament on Friday, will attempt to take sole possession of the school single-season victory record they now share with the 2000-01 Anteaters, who went 25-5.

It’s UCI’s fourth straight trip to a national postseason tournament. It made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament last season. Coach Russell Turner’s squad went 1-1 in the CIT in 2013 and lost in the first round of the NIT in 2014.

The Anteaters are led by junior guard Luke Nelson, who was named to All-Big West Tournament team and averages a team-best 13.8 points per game. The first-team all-conference performer scored a career-high 36 in a first-round win over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Thursday at Honda Center, one point shy of the tournament record.

Mamadou Ndiaye, a 7-foot-6 junior center who also earned first-team all-conference recognition, is averaging 12.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest for UCI.

UCI senior point guard Alex Taylor is averaging 9.9 points and 4.5 assists per game and his 563 career assists are tops in program history.

North Dakota (17-15) was 10-8 in the Big Sky Conference regular season and finished fifth. The Fighting Hawks lost to eventual champion Weber State, 83-78, in overtime in the conference tournament semifinals on Friday.

Junior guard Quinton Hooker tied his career high with 38 points in the loss to Weber State. The first-team All-Big Sky performer is averaging 20.2 points, five rebounds and 3.6 assists per contest.

If victorious, UCI would advance to the second round, Friday through Sunday.

The quarterfinals will take place March 22-24, with the semifinals set for March 27, and the title game March 29.

— From staff reports