UC Santa Barbara (17-7, 6-4) vs. UC Irvine (21-5, 9-1)
Bren Events Center, Irvine, California; Saturday, 9 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UC Irvine looks for its eighth straight conference win against UC Santa Barbara. UC Irvine's last Big West loss came against the Long Beach State 49ers 80-70 on Jan. 16. UC Santa Barbara came up short in a 71-57 game at UC Riverside on Thursday.
SAVVY SENIORS: UC Irvine's Max Hazzard, Jonathan Galloway and Elston Jones have collectively scored 34 percent of the team's points this season and have accounted for 40 percent of all Anteaters scoring over the last five games.
BIG WEST BOOST: The Gauchos have given up just 64.6 points per game across 10 conference games. That's an improvement from the 68.4 per game they gave up over 12 non-conference games.
ACCURATE AR'MOND: Ar'mond Davis has connected on 36.8 percent of the 106 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 5 of 16 over the last five games. He's also made 76.9 percent of his free throws this season.
STREAK STATS: UC Irvine has won its last three home games, scoring an average of 69.7 points while giving up 57.7.
ASSIST RATIOS: The Anteaters have recently used assists to create baskets more often than the Gauchos. UC Irvine has an assist on 52 of 82 field goals (63.4 percent) over its previous three outings while UC Santa Barbara has assists on 26 of 61 field goals (42.6 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The UC Santa Barbara defense has allowed only 64.4 points per game to opponents, which is the 28th-best mark in the country. The UC Irvine offense has put up just 70.6 points through 26 games (ranked 221st among Division I teams).
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
