Men’s Basketball Preview: UC Irvine vs. Sacramento State

UCI Pregame

Vs. Sacramento State

Saturday, 7 p.m. at Sacramento State

The Anteaters (4-3) begin a stretch in which they play six of seven games on the road against a Hornets’ squad that is 2-2

Coach Russell Turner, in his fourth season at UCI, earned his 50th victory at the school in Sunday’s 81-56 triumph over visiting Eastern Washington in the 2K Classic Irvine Subregional.

Mamadou Ndiaye, UCI’s 7-foot-6 freshman center, broke his own Big West Conference single-game record with 10 blocked shots on Sunday and he entered the week leading the nation with 29 total blocks.

Will Davis, a 6-8 junior forward who was named MVP of the 2K Classic subregional, is averaging 13 points and 7.7 rebounds this season.

UCI junior guard Alex Young was an all-tournament selection and is averaging 11.1 points per game, just off the pace of senior guard Chris McNealy (11.3).

Davis entered the week shooting 62.3% from the field, which ranked No. 42 nationally.

UCI is shooting 50.9% as a team (No. 27 nationally entering the week), while its opponents are hitting just 40.7% of their field-goal attempts.

Coming into the week, UCI ranked No. 6 nationally in assists per game (20.3), 14th in assist-to-turnover and 33rd in blocks per game (6.3).

The Anteaters have an average rebounding edge of seven per game.

Sacramento St. is led by junior guards Dylan Garrity (15.3 points per game) and Mikh McKinney (14.3). The Hornets 1,200-seat gym is known as “the Nest.”

— Barry Faulkner