UC Irvine Survives San Jose’sPhantom Shooter, 78-77

UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan and his staff didn’t sit around Saturday morning worrying about stopping Bryan Holt of San Jose State.

Mulligan has too many of his own problems to be chewing his nails over a freshman forward averaging two points and seven minutes a game.

Bryan Holt?

“He was shooting 31% from the field and was a freshman,” Mulligan said. “And he’s the guy they’ve got shooting the three-point play in the end.”

Had Holt’s desperation shot dropped in the final seconds, Mulligan would have had nightmares for years to come.

But Holt missed and UCI held on to beat San Jose State, 78-77, in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game played in front of a crowd of 1,385 at Crawford Hall.

UCI improved to 5-6 in PCAA play and 10-12 overall. San Jose State fell to 4-6 and 9-10.

And, for this season at least, the Anteaters can wipe the memory of Holt from their minds.

UCI, which was looking for an easy win, was leading comfortably with 14:11 left when guard Jerome Lee whipped a wrap-around pass to Tod Murphy for a fast-break basket. Murphy was fouled on the play, and his free throw gave the Anteaters a 13-point lead at 59-46.

At that time, Holt was the least of UCI’s worries.

But, boy, did he become a giant pain in the basket.

Holt hasn’t done a thing all season. Nothing. His previous high in a game was seven.

But Saturday night, he made 13 of 20 shots and finished with 26 points.

In the end, Mulligan and his staff were calling timeouts to figure a way to stop old what’s-his-name.

In the final 13 minutes, Holt scored 14 points.

His fade-away jumper with 1:54 left cut the UCI lead to 74-73. His base-line jumper with 15 seconds left cut the Anteaters’ lead to one again at 76-75. And Mulligan couldn’t believe it.

After Tod Murphy made two free throws with 12 seconds left to put UCI up by three again, the Spartans (9-10, 4-6) called time.

They set up their final play to go to either Holt or Herb Simon.

Mulligan put the 6-9 Murphy on the 6-4 Holt to try to upset his timing. Perhaps rushing his shot with five seconds left, Holt missed his attempt. Stony Evans scored on the rebound, but two points weren’t enough for the Spartans.

“I don’t even remember him from the first game,” UCI guard Lee said of Holt. “I thought he was a new guy on the team.”

It was lucky for UCI that it had Lee. The senior had six assists and 20 points, two of those coming on an off-balanced jump shot to beat the 45-second clock with 1:07 left, putting his team up by three points.