Anteaters Turn One Over to Aggies, 91-89

UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan was searching for a compliment to pay his team after Monday night’s 91-89 Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. loss to New Mexico State.

“I will say this, we came back after we were down and played hard . . . but we played dumb, too,” was the best he could do.

UCI had the ball and a chance to tie with 11 seconds left, but center Johnny Rogers had the ball knocked from his grasp out of bounds with three seconds remaining and the Aggies’ Gerald Wright stole Irvine’s third attempt at an inbound pass and held on for the win.

Mulligan, however, was quick to point out that this one was not decided in the final seconds.

“We lost this game in the first half when we made 13 turnovers and they made only 5,” he said. “We didn’t defend anyone, our passing was really bad and we must have had 30 turnovers. And that’s being charitable.”

Actually, the Anteaters turned the ball over just 22 times, but the majority were bad passes that ended up being jammed through the hoop at the other end by the Aggies.

Rogers and forward Tod Murphy did everything possible to keep Irvine--and the 1,096 in Crawford Hall--in the game, but they couldn’t overcome the continued poor play of the UCI backcourt. As a result, the Anteaters dropped to 7-9 overall and 2-3 in conference. New Mexico State is 6-7 and 2-2 in the PCAA.

Rogers scored 36 points, including 13 on free throws, and Murphy had 23 points and 12 rebounds. They combined to make 22 of 33 from the floor, but it wasn’t enough to offset the 13-turnover performance of the four UCI guards (Troy Carmon, Rodney Scott, Jerome Lee and Bryan Williams).

And, to magnify the problem, the Anteater guards are shooting a combined 32% in conference action.

Murphy, asked if the team’s backcourt play was discouraging in light of his own play, said softly, “If doesn’t matter if you lose and have a decent performance. The other guys are going as hard as they can. I’d rather win and sit on the bench.”

Irvine shot a more-than-respectable 56% from the field, outrebounded the Aggies by five (35-30) and made four more free throws. But they also threw the ball away with such regularity that the old, volatile, pre-stroke Mulligan almost emerged on the sidelines.

“It’s discouraging, because now we have to go to their place and try to even it up,” Mulligan said. “And it’s discouraging because I’ve never had a team make this many mental mistakes.”

Someone suggested blaming inexperience.

“How long can we say we’re young,” Mulligan shot back. “Hell, we started three juniors, a senior and one freshman tonight. I don’t know, it’s the same old story. Johnny and Tod carry us and we hope the other three guys play half-way decent.”

On this night, Mulligan’s prayers weren’t answered.

New Mexico State also looks to two players to shoulder the bulk of the offensive burden, but the Aggies had five players in double figures Monday night.

Leading the way, as usual, was former Banning High School standout Gilbert Wilburn with 28 points, including a pair of three-pointers. The 6-4 Gilbert is one of those players who always seems to be in the right place at the right time and he got almost half his points Monday after grabbing offensive rebounds away from a host of taller Anteaters.

Center Andre Patterson, the Aggies main man underneath, and guard Jeff Williams each had 14 points, Orlando Febres scored 12 and Wright added 10.

New Mexico State, shooting 45% as a team coming in, shot 56% this time thanks to Irvine’s propensity for giving the Aggies breakaway layups.

The Aggies turned a 40-38 halftime lead into a 12-point bulge in just six minutes after the intermission. But the Anteaters’ full-court, man-to-man press pressured New Mexico State into a few turnovers and Lee’s three-pointer and a Carmon layup tied the score, 79-79.

New Mexico State managed to match every Irvine score, though, and the Aggies had a five-point lead (89-84) with just 38 seconds left. Rogers’ three-pointer with 15 seconds left made it interesting.

A few minutes later, however, the only word Bill Mulligan could think of to describe it was “discouraging.”