Men’s Basketball: UCI center lauded

UC Irvine senior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos has been named Big West Conference Player of the Week in men’s basketball.

The 7-foot-2 first-time honoree averaged averaged 19 points, eight rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots as the Anteaters remained undefeated in the conference with road wins over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Wednesday) and Cal State Northridge (Saturday).

He recorded his third double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds at Cal Poly and scored 19 points for the third consecutive game against CSUN, hitting eight of nine field-goal attempts.

The 7-2 Dimakopoulos shot 60% from the field (15 of 25) for the week and hit seven of eight foul shots. His 38 points were scored in a total of 40 minutes of action over the two games.

He leads the Big West in field-goal percentage for league games at .645 and blocked shots at 1.1 per contest. He is fifth in scoring in conference play (15.8 per contest).

A first-year starter, Dimakopoulos is averaging 11.9 points and 4.5 rebounds.

The Anteaters (13-9, 6-0 in conference) play host to Cal Poly on Thursday at 7 p.m., and visit UC Davis on Saturday at 5 p.m.

— From staff reports