Utah State Puts Big West Streak on Line at Irvine

The date has been in their minds for months. Yet, Irvine guard Jerry Green and his teammates weren’t sure that tonight’s Big West Conference showdown for first place with Utah State at the ren Center would turn out this big.

“It will be a true test of just where we stand,” Green said of the 7 p.m. game. “I knew for sure that we would do well. But I did not expect us to be playing with a record like this.”

Utah State, 18-2 overall and 7-0 in the Big West, is the defending conference champion and is used to this sort of thing. Not Irvine (15-2, 7-0), which is off to its best start since it opened 16-1 in 1981-82. The Anteaters’ 11 consecutive victories tie a school record set in 1971-72, when it played in Division II.

Utah State continues to steamroll through the conference, where the Aggies have won 26 in a row.

“I’ve kind of gotten a kick out of it lately,” Utah State Coach Stew Morrill said at his weekly news conference. “Because it’s a little bit of the mentality that we are not supposed to lose a game. I’ve said all along that that’s crazy. We have to go and do the best we can, game by game, but we’re going to have some losses.”

The Aggies, led by senior forward Shawn Daniels, have four players scoring in double figures.

Irvine’s Green, a 6-foot-3 junior, leads the Anteaters in scoring for the third consecutive season (17.7 points). He has averaged 23 points over his last eight games.

Forward Ben Jones (11.9 points, 4.9 rebounds) is second on the team in scoring. Freshman center Adam Parada, who scored 14 points against UCLA, has had 25 blocked shots in his last 13 games. Senior forward Sean Jackson is the team’s best defender. Senior guard Malachi Edmond, slowed because of a nagging hamstring pull early in the season, had a career-high 10 rebounds in last week’s 66-56 victory at UC Santa Barbara.

“We’ve got other players besides Jerry Green who can play,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “But Jerry has been on a role lately.”