Victory Puts Anteaters in Tournament Picture : College: Irvine defeats San Jose State, 67-62, for eighth place in Big West.

SAN JOSE — The excuses were available and waiting in more than their usual array if UC Irvine lost to San Jose State on Thursday night.

But this time, the Anteaters left them on the shelf.

Irvine is a team that could have been weary and beaten before it was even beaten. Instead, the Anteaters won, 67-62, taking the inside track on the final berth in the Big West Conference tournament by beating the Spartans for the second time this season.

The worst was poised to happen, as it did in the Event Center last year when Irvine became one of only two teams to lose to the Spartans all season.

This time, the Anteaters were without their second leading scorer, guard Keith Stewart, who did not make the trip because of a paperwork problem involving his academic eligibility.

The rest of the team could easily have claimed exhaustion. Irvine lost to Hofstra in Hempstead, N.Y., on Monday night after taking a red-eye flight East after a loss to Cal State Long Beach on Saturday.

And they were playing the Spartans, a team that was as victory-hungry as they were. San Jose State is 6-16, and its 3-11 conference record drops it into ninth in the Big West, a notch below Irvine, which is 6-16, 4-10. Only the top eight teams in the 10-team league advance to the tournament.

With four games remaining, the Anteaters don’t have it locked up, but Coach Rod Baker said he likes his chances “a lot better than I did before.”

“This is one we had to get, no two ways about it,” Baker said.

They got it in no small part because Jeff Von Lutzow decided to go get it.

“He decided early on today that he was going to be good, and he proved it tonight,” Baker said.

Von Lutzow scored 24 points, only three days after scoring a mere two in the loss to Hofstra.

“I’ve been thinking about this game since we were in Hempstead,” Von Lutzow said. “That was a terrible game for me.”

This was a terrific one. Von Lutzow, a 6-foot-9 senior forward, made 10 of 17 shots, including four of seven three-pointers.

Two of those three-pointers came during a 13-0 first-half blitz when Von Lutzow and freshman Todd Whitehead--who started for Stewart--combined to knock San Jose State out of a zone. Irvine led by as many as eight in the first half, but only by 31-28 at halftime after the Anteaters scored only three points in the final seven minutes.

In the second half, when the Spartans pulled ahead by three after a 9-0 run, Von Lutzow fought back with two more threes in quick succession. One, typical of his night, came after he picked up a loose ball near the baseline. In a crucial stretch, he scored 10 of 12 Irvine points while San Jose managed only three.

“With his size, he just shot over the top of our guys,” San Jose State Coach Stan Morrison said. “He was too good. He really posed problems for us.”

When Von Lutzow took the ball himself on a three-quarter-court drive that ended in a cut into the lane and a finger-roll layup, it was clear it was his night.

“He took the ball 70 feet, and we couldn’t get anybody to force him to pass,” Morrison said.

It wasn’t all Von Lutzow. Irvine won behind the work of Whitehead, sophomore reserve guard Zuri Williams and sophomore walk-on Khalid Channell as well.

“We needed ‘em,” Von Lutzow said, praising his teammates’ game.

Baker said Williams gave the team “a great performance” with his poise and ballhandling. Whitehead helped get the early lead. And Channell, who had played only 14 minutes all season, played 28 minutes and scored eight points. Those players, as much as others, helped key the defense that held the Spartans at bay--especially an aggressive zone that Baker installed because “we needed something new.”

San Jose State trimmed Irvine’s eight-point lead to three with 1:03 left on a three-point play by Mike Brotherton, and had the ball trailing by four with 26 seconds left before Dee Boyer blocked a shot by Les Shepherd with 16 seconds left.

Mumford made one of two free throws with 13 seconds left for the final margin.