Irvine stands tall in Big West tournament victory over Riverside

UC Irvine’s big advantage in the Big West tournament became clear at Thursday’s tipoff at Honda Center.

UC Riverside trotted out 6-foot-7 Taylor Johns to jump center against the Anteaters’ 7-foot-6 shot eater, Mamadou Ndiaye.

College basketball’s tallest player won the tip and top-seeded Irvine was off and churning to a 63-43 quarterfinal victory over the bottom-seeded Highlanders.

The workmanlike effort earned Irvine a trip to Friday’s 6:30 p.m. semifinal game against seventh-seeded Cal Poly, a shocking 31-point winner over No. 2 UC Santa Barbara.

The other semifinal will feature third-seeded Long Beach State against Cal State Northridge.

Irvine (23-10), the Big West’s top defense, showed why in holding Riverside to 29.4% shooting (15 for 51).

Riverside’s leading scorer, with 10 points, was reserve guard Nick Gruninger.

“We did what we do,” Irvine Coach Russ Turner said.

It starts down low with Ndiaye, who played only 21 minutes but finished with four points, four rebounds, four blocks and several distracted shots.

“Not too many people have a 7-6 guy standing in the middle,” Riverside’s Johns said.

Ndiaye’s four blocks pushed him to 98 and set the Big West season record previously held by Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi, who had 95 in 1997-98.

“That’s a heck of an accomplishment, to do it as a freshman,” Turner said of Ndiaye, “because he’s going to get better.”

Ndiaye, and 6-10 backup center John Ryan, also helped to hold Riverside center Chris Patton to five points in 21 minutes.

Riverside (10-21) played short and short-handed, having to face the Big West’s top team without injured guard Sam Finley, averaging 12.5 points a game.

Will Davis II scored 16 points to lead Irvine.

Cal Poly 69, UC Santa Barbara 38: This upset marked the third time in the last four years the No. 7 seed has defeated the No. 2 in the Big West quarterfinals.

Five days ago, Cal Poly lost at home to Santa Barbara by 16 points.

“I think it’s just a number,” Cal Poly forward Joel Awich, who finished with 11 points, said of the seedings. “It doesn’t say who we are.”

The Mustangs led by 21 at the half after playing a near perfect first 20 minutes, hitting 59% of their shots and six of eight three-point attempts.

Cal Poly (11-19) is two wins from becoming the lowest-seeded team to win the Big West Tournament. San Jose State was a No. 6 in 1996.

Santa Barbara (21-9) stumbled home to answer for one of the most befuddling defeats in school history. The Gauchos made only 16 of 49 field goal attempts.

Long Beach State 66, Cal State Fullerton 56: The third-seeded 49ers trailed by four points in the second half when 49ers Coach Dan Monson called time out.

Long Beach (15-16) answered with a 16-2 run that put the 49ers into Friday’s semifinals.

What did Monson say?

“I told them as long as you go on a 16-2 run you’ll be fine,” he joked.

Mike Caffey led the 49ers with 14 points and did an excellent job in holding Fullerton sharp-shooter Michael Williams, averaging 17.6 points per game, to 10 points on three of 17 shooting.

Alex Harris led Fullerton (11-20) with 17.

Cal State Northridge 87, Hawaii 84 (OT): The Matadors (16-17) rallied from 13 points down in the second half, Josh Greene’s three-pointer with 12 seconds left in regulation forced overtime and Stephen Maxwell provided the go-ahead basket with 12 seconds left in overtime.

Hawaii senior forward Christian Standhardinger led the Warriors with 28 points. Greene finished with 27 points to lead Northridge.