As Expected, UCI Defeats Pacific, but It Isn’t Easy

Players can’t wait for the day when they look at the schedule and see they’re playing against the Pacific basketball team.

It’s the same feeling you had on Christmas morning as a kid. You can’t sleep the night before. You can’t wait to get started.

Against Pacific, you could work the kinks out of your jump shot and pad your scoring average. Everyone’s Dr. J when they come to the Spanos Center.

Pacific entered Saturday’s game against UC Irvine with this kind of momentum. The Tigers lost two Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. games last week by a total of 55 points.

So why was it that UCI can only escape with a 70-65 win before a crowd of 3,820?

Was it something the Anteaters ate? Or was it the eight-hour bus ride from Irvine to Stockton Friday morning? Or maybe it was the guest appearence by The Chicken himself, whose courtside antics made it hard to concentrate on the game?

Who knows, but unlike other years, UCI Coach Bill Mulligan wasn’t complaining about this sloppy win. “The way we’ve been going, I’m just happy to be 6-6 in conference,” he said. “I’m much more content than in past years. I used to get mad when we’d win like this, but now I’m just happy to win.”

The Anteaters, 11-12 overall, actually trailed the Tigers at halftime, 31-28. And that’s not something to be proud of. Pacific is in the midst of another tough season, dropping to 3-9 in the PCAA and 7-14 overall after Saturday’s loss.

But at least the Tigers gave UCI a scare. The Anteaters outscored Pacific, 8-0, to open the second half and then had to bite their nails down the stretch.

A basket by Pacific’s Karlwin Matthews with 6:04 left cut the Irvine lead to one at 59-58.

The Tigers had the momentum, and UCI was looking for someone to stop it. That player turned out to be Jerome Lee. He scored all of his 10 points in the second half, five of those coming when the Anteaters really needed them.

After Matthews’ shot cut the UCI lead to one, Lee scored on a lay up to build the lead back to three. With 5:35 left, he gave UCI a six-point lead on his three-point shot.

“Every time I shoot a three-pointer, I don’t even know that I’m out that far, I just shoot it,” Lee said. “I thought we let down a little tonight, but it’s always been hard to play here.” This is UCI’s 11th straight win over Pacific.

In the final two minutes, Pacific almost got back into the game when UCI guard Rodney Scott missed three one-and-one free throw attempts.

But with 15 seconds left and the Tigers trailing by three, Kyle Pepple bounced the ball off teammate Domingo Rosario’s leg and out of bounds.

That’s just the way things have gone for Pacific this season.

Rosario led all scorers with 20 points. Johnny Rogers and Tod Murphy led UCI with 16 points each.

Pacific Coach Tom O’Neill, in the final year of his contract, wasn’t pleased with the way his team opened the second half. It’s been the Tigers’ pattern to let down right after halftime. “We warned them about that,” O’Neill said. “We even changed our warmup drills a little to get their blood pumping more. But it’s not working.”

This year, nothing is.