Brad Greene (Paiute-Shoshone) has 8 rebounds along with 4 points as UC-Irvine earns its 3rd Big West regular-season title

IRVINE, Calif. — UC Irvine was not going to be denied on Senior Day as the Anteaters overwhelmed UC Davis, 79-49, to clinch the Big West Conference regular-season title and the league tournament’s No. 1 seed before 4,384 at the Bren Events Center Saturday.

With the victory, UCI has won outright or shared the Big West regular-season championship three of the past four years.

The top-seeded Anteaters (19-13, 12-4) will face No. 8 seed UC Riverside (7-20, 5-11) Thursday at 6:00 p.m. in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Prior to Saturday’s game, UCI seniors Ioannis Dimakopoulos, Jaron Martin and Luke Nelson, along with co-head manager NShan Kenjoian, were honored.

Nelson poured in 29 points Saturday, hitting a career-high seven threes in 11 attempts, for his sixth 20-point game of the season.

He boosted his UCI career record to 247 threes and has 1,467 points for eighth all-time in the Anteater record book as he moves closer to No. 7 Kevin Magee (1,475).

Nelson is fifth in UCI career history with 395 assists and 138 steals.

Martin added 10 points, three assists and two steals in Saturday’s win.  He hit a pair of threes to raise his career total to 180 for sixth in the UCI record book.

Freshman forward Tommy Rutherford had eight points and 11 rebounds as he reached double-digit boards for the third time this season.

Dimakopoulos recorded six points and four rebounds, sophomore Brandon Smith had five points and two blocked shots, and freshman center Brad Greene (Paiute/Shoshone) had eight rebounds along with four points.

Siler Schneider led UC Davis (19-12, 11-5) with 16 points while Brynton Lemar and Lawrence White scored 10 each.

The Anteaters built a 41-23 halftime lead as Nelson scored 15 points in the opening 20 minutes.

UCI led by at least 20 points in the last 16 minutes of the game in winning for the 37^th time in the last 44 games in the Bren Center.

The ‘Eaters shot 45.9 percent from the field and held the Aggies to 31.3 percent as UCI is 70-8 in its last 78 games when limiting the opposition to under 40 percent from the floor.  UCI had a 50-36 advantage on the boards

Coach Russell Turner’s Anteaters, who have won 60 Big West games over the last five seasons, are now 71-4 in their last 75 games when holding the opponents to 60 points or less.