UCI’s Wise, Maly-Karros singled out

UC Irvine basketball stars Eric Wise (men) and Mikah Maly-Karros (women) have been named to their respective six-player preseason All-Big West Conference teams in voting released Thursday.

The UCI men’s and women’s teams have been picked to finish sixth in the nine-team conference.

Wise, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound junior, earned second-team all-conference laurels each of his first two seasons. He led UCI in scoring (16.3 per game), rebounding (6.5 per game) and assists (3.0 per contest) last season, the first player in 37 seasons to do so.

The UCI men, guided by first-year coach Russ Turner, received 93 points, ahead of Cal State Fullerton (81), Cal State Northridge (55) and UC Riverside (39).

UC Santa Barbara, which won the conference tournament last year after sharing the regular-season title with Pacific, topped the men’s poll, earning 20 of 23 first-place votes. The Gauchos’ 204 points bested Long Beach State (180 points and two first-place votes) and Pacific (161 points and one first-place vote).

UC Davis (126 points), and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (96) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the men’s poll.

Maly-Karros, a 6-1 junior forward, was a first-team All-Big West performer in her first season with UCI after transferring from Loyola Marymount. She led the conference in scoring (20.5 per game) and rebounding (11.1 per contest) and scored 41 points in the ‘Eaters first-round conference tournament loss to Cal State Fullerton.

The UCI women, led by third-year coach Molly Goodenbour, received 96 points in a poll topped by UC Davis (210 points and 16 first-place votes), Cal Poly (183), UC Riverside (182) and UCSB (164). Cal Poly received four first-place votes, with UCSB getting three and Riverside collecting two.

Cal State Fullerton (113 points) was fifth in the women’s poll, with Long Beach State (84), Pacific (51) and Cal State Northridge (42), taking the Nos. 7-9 spots.

The UCI men (14-18, 6-10 in conference last season) have home exhibition games against UC San Diego (Tuesday) and Concordia (Nov. 5), before opening their regular season Nov, 8 at Illinois.

The UCI women (9-21, 6-10 in 2009-10) play their second exhibition game Nov. 5 at home against Redlands, before opening the regular season Nov. 11 at UTEP.

The men’s preseason all-conference team also included UCSB’s Orlando Johnson and James Nunnally, Long Beach State’s T.J. Robinson and Casper Ware, as well as Joe Harden from UC Davis.

Joining Maly-Karros on the women’s preseason all-conference team were Paige Mintun (UC Davis), Alyssa Morris (UCR), Megan Richardson (Cal State Fullerton), Kristina Santiago (Cal Poly) and Mekia Valentine (UCSB).

— From staff reports