Cal State Bakersfield (11-6, 7-3) vs. UC Irvine (9-5, 6-1)
Bren Events Center, Irvine, California; Friday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UC Irvine hosts Cal State Bakersfield in a Big West matchup. Each team last played this past Saturday. Cal State Bakersfield beat Cal State Fullerton by 10 at home, while UC Irvine is coming off of a 62-61 overtime loss on the road against Hawaii.
FEARLESS FRESHMEN: UC Irvine’s Collin Welp, Dawson Baker and DJ Davis have collectively scored 40 percent of all Anteaters points this season, although that figure has fallen to 22 percent over the last five games.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS: The Anteaters have allowed just 56.6 points per game to conference opponents thus far, an improvement from the 71.6 per game they allowed to non-conference opponents.CLUTCH COLLIN: Welp has connected on 31.8 percent of the 22 3-pointers he’s attempted and has gone 2 for 5 over his last three games. He’s also made 79.5 percent of his foul shots this season.
STREAK STATS: UC Irvine has won its last seven home games, scoring an average of 86.7 points while giving up 54.3.
PASSING FOR POINTS: The Roadrunners have recently converted buckets via assists more often than the Anteaters. UC Irvine has an assist on 22 of 70 field goals (31.4 percent) over its past three games while Cal State Bakersfield has assists on 52 of 95 field goals (54.7 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: Cal State Bakersfield and UC Irvine are the class of the Big West in terms of offensive rebounding. The Roadrunners are ranked first among conference teams with an offensive rebounding percentage of 40.4, 14.1 offensive boards per game. The Anteaters are ranked second with an offensive rebound percentage of 36, 12.4 per game.
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