San Jose State Runs Over UC Irvine in PCAA Opener

In his first five years at San Jose State, Coach Bill Berry built his program around a tenacious defense and a deliberate offense. When you played the Spartans, you figured to score about 50 points and still have a chance to win.

Thursday night at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, the Spartans looked more like the Denver Nuggets than a ball-control college team as they raced to a 93-71 rout of UC Irvine in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. opener. It was the second-highest point total ever for a Berry-coached San Jose State team.

The Spartans (6-4) shot an incredible 78% in the first 15 minutes--blowing past the slower Anteaters for a host of fast break layups--and opened a 53-36 halftime advantage. UCI (5-7) never got closer than that 17-point deficit.

Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan, who smiled and said, “Words fail me,” before meeting with his team, emptied his bench with 14:42 remaining. But this one was over midway through the first half when the Spartans ran out to a 35-23 lead.

“You know me and my conservative ways,” Berry said. “I bit my tongue more than few times, but by and large, I was pleased. Our shot selection was very good until we started playing the score.”

The new year is just three days old, but that has to be the understatement of 1985. Eighteen of San Jose’s first 22 points came on layups or shots from three feet or closer.

Mulligan, who emerged from the Irvine locker room less than a minute after he entered, finally found a few words, most of which were printable.

“They shot 67% in the first half and we shot 39%,” he said. “Their guards killed our guards and (Spartan center Matt) Fleming played very, very well. They got all those layups, some off the break and some out of their offense.

“They are just playing real well right now.”

Indeed. The Spartans have won five in a row and Berry, who still found a number of things to scream at his players about during the game, had to search to point out some negatives afterward.

“We didn’t rebound all that well (the Spartans outrebounded UCI, 22-21),” he said, “and we lost some intensity when we got way up.”

“We’ve always liked to run when we could,” he protested and then smiled and added, “Yeah, I guess that was about the best half we’ve played offensively in a while. We don’t score 53 points in a half too often.”

Understatement of the year No. 2.

Irvine’s Johnny Rogers, who ran his free-throw string to 26 in a row by sinking seven straight Thursday, led all scorers with 23 points. He had 9 of the Anteaters’ first 11 points as UCI moved out to an 11-6 lead. But the Spartans outscored Irvine, 10-2, after that and never looked back.

San Jose State had five players in double figures and only reserve Ontario Johnson (5 of 11 from the field with 12 points) shot under 60% from the floor. Guard Ward Farris was 10 of 15 (20 points), forward Stony Evans was 8 of 10 (19 points), Fleming was 6 of 9 (17 points) and forward Reggie Owens was 4 of 7 (11 points).

“We knew we could run against Irvine. That was the idea, really,” Johnson said as if he was trying to convince himself. “They don’t recover too good, so Coach told us to look for the fast break more than usual.”

Both coaches said the Spartan backcourt was the difference, at both ends of the court. Four Irvine guards totaled five points.

“Those three guards (Farris, Johnson and Michael Dixon) are great,” Mulligan said. “Their whole team is playing very well right now, but we’re totally frustrated at this point. We thought we had found some answers but I don’t know, now.”

When asked why he went to the reserves so early, he asked, “It was over then wasn’t it? In fact, the only reason I took some of them out later was because they were getting awfully tired. They’re not used to playing so long.”

If Irvine has a few more games like the one Thursday night, the reserves will have the endurance of marathoners. And it’ll be a marathon season for Mulligan.