Anteaters Again Fall Behind Early, Lose to St. Mary’s

MORAGA — UC Irvine’s less-than-magical misery tour ended Tuesday night at St. Mary’s, where the Anteaters--who have done more excavating in the last few days than a team of archeologists--dug themselves another hole they couldn’t crawl out of.

Irvine fell behind Georgetown, 25-6, Saturday, and were subsequently buried by 29 points by the Hoyas. Against St. Mary’s, the Anteaters trailed, 22-6, before finally succumbing, 104-95.

“We started the game as if we were in a daze,” Coach Rod Baker said. “But we made it manageable pretty quickly. We got it down to eight three minutes later. We just didn’t make the basketball plays. We took bad shots, or we took quick shots, or we didn’t get a shot.

“It seemed to be a mindset thing. We just lacked the total aggressiveness we need from everybody.”

Four times in the first half, Irvine cut the lead to seven points and had three chances in the last 10 minutes to get back in the game. The Anteaters trailed, 80-71, with 7:22 to play and guard Zuri Williams couldn’t inbound the ball in the allotted five seconds. The score was 86-78 with 5:25 remaining when Lloyd Mumford knocked over Darrell Daniel away from the ball and Daniel made two free throws. With 4:26 to play, Jermaine Avie fouled out on a hold and A.J. Rollins made two free throws.

“Everybody took a turn,” Baker said. “It seemed like everybody had the opportunity to do something wrong and did. Those are situations when we have to settle into a normal pace and get the best shot, but we seemed to play at the same speed when we were seven down as we did when we were 17 down.”

Irvine (2-4) uses a pressure defense to force an up-tempo style of play, but Tuesday the Anteaters seemed to be playing right into St. Mary’s hands. The Gaels broke the Anteater press for some layups and when they didn’t get the easy shot, they went to a crisp passing game and found the open man, who usually made the shot.

“When all is said and done,” Baker said, “they shoot pretty darn well. If they have their feet set and get a look at the basket, there’s better than a 50-50 chance they’re going to make it. That overcomes a lot.”

The Gaels (6-1) were in high gear from the get-go. It was the first time in three seasons they have scored 100 or more points against a Division I team.

“We’ve had great starts in every game this season,” Gael Coach Ernie Kent said, “and we were obviously ready to play tonight. We had the offense clicking and getting it going that quickly puts the guys coming off the bench into a comfort zone.

“The way we play, we know teams are going to make a minimum of four runs a game at us. Tonight, when that happened, we were able to step it up a notch.”

St. Mary’s had three players with 21 or more points. Guards Chris Johnson and Daniel, who made a combined nine of 17 three-pointers, scored 28 and 21 respectively. Rollins, who ran himself into a number of layups, had 22 points and nine rebounds.

The Anteaters had six players in double figures, led by Mumford, who scored all 17 of his points in the second half. Center DeForrest Boyer had 15 points and 11 rebounds; Khalid Channell scored 13 points; perimeter shooters Mark Odsather and Chris Brown combined to hit eight of 13 three-pointers to score 12 each, and power forward Avie had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Irvine, which shot a respectable 46% from the floor and a more-than-respectable 52% from three-point range (11 of 21), turned over the ball 19 times, though. They also made only six of 11 free throws in the final five minutes, which didn’t help their attempt to rally.

“We shot the ball well enough, but we found other ways,” Baker said, “and for no apparent reason.”

So Irvine returns today from its six-day, coast-to-coast trip with two more losses and more than a couple of problems to ponder.

St. Mary’s has other ideas.

“We gave ourselves a Christmas present,” Kent said. “We’re going home feeling good about ourselves and the team.”

That’s the sort of holiday cheer Baker and Co. can only dream about.