GAME NOTES: A couple of teams that have never won the Big West Conference Tournament try to change all that, as the UC Riverside Highlanders go up against the UC Irvine Anteaters in the quarterfinals of the 40th annual event on Thursday at the Honda Center.

UC Irvine, the third seed in the tourney this time around, has been involved in this event for decades and has a record of 24-32 to show for its efforts, but to this point the program has yet to bring home the crown. That's not to say there haven't been some close calls for the Anteaters, because the unit has played in the title game a total of four times, but just never made it over the hump.

This season the Anteaters, who most recently lost to Pacific in the 2013 championship game, ran up a conference record of 11-5, although they dropped two of their last three games on the schedule.

As for the sixth-seeded Highlanders, who are just 3-8 in the tourney all-time, they too are coming into the postseason on a sour note, losing three in a row as they dipped to 7-9 in league action and were two games under .500 (14-16) overall.

During the regular season the teams split their two meetings, with each winning on their home floor. UCI posted a 69-55 victory at the Bren Events Center on Jan. 10, and Riverside countered with a 70-63 triumph on Valentine's Day.

This game is a rematch of the first-round clash from last year's tourney when the Anteaters, the top seed, crushed eighth-seeded UCR by a score of 63-43. Irvine leads the all-time series by a 34-24 margin.

The winner of this meeting will be back in action on Friday against an opponent to be determined based on the seeds remaining.

The Highlanders are led by a pair of double-digit scorers who have combined to account for almost half the program's points in 2014-15 as Taylor Johns puts in 16.3 ppg and Jaylen Bland adds another 15.5 ppg. Johns, a member of the All-Big West First Team, was a fixture at the free-throw line (113-of-173) and a force on the glass (8.1 rpg) for the Highlanders, but wasn't quite suited to be a perimeter threat with only 22.2 percent accuracy on 3-point attempts. Named to the All-Big West Second Team and the Newcomer of the Year in the league, Bland was only 38.8 percent accurate from the floor overall, but his 39.5 percent showing beyond the arc (94-of-238) easily compensated as it lifted the entire unit up to 35.0 percent.

The Anteaters find themselves a mix between a solid 3-point shooting program (.397) and a decent defensive group, allowing opponents only 62.7 ppg on 39.8 percent success from the floor. Will Davis II, who was selected to the All-Big West First Team, helps to carry the offense with his 12.7 ppg, hitting on an impressive 52.8 percent of his tries from the floor, having recognized that his strength lies in the paint (6.5 rpg) and not out on the perimeter where he refrained from taking a single shot through 29 starts. Mamadou Ndiaye has appeared in just 11 games, but he is still a valuable commodity in the paint, having knocked down a sensational 63.5 percent of his field goal attempts for 10.6 ppg.

The Anteaters might be the higher seed this season, but given the top-tier talent that Riverside brings to the table, there's no reason to think the Highlanders can't pull off the minor upset.