Irvine Shooting Goes Cold as Fresno State Wins by 12

UC Irvine had this great game plan for that zip-lock zone defense Fresno State likes to play.

UCI would shoot from outside until their arms turned as limp as wet linguine. Yeah, that was it. The Anteaters would drag the Bulldogs out of that zone if it killed them.

It could work. No, it would work.

OK, so it didn’t work.

Fresno State beat the Anteaters, 52-40, in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game played before a crowd of 10,114 Monday night in Selland Arena.

This was the night Irvine was going to shoot the lights out in Fresno. Instead, the Anteaters shot as if the lights were out in Selland Arena.

No, UCI didn’t score 100 points or burn the nets.

Instead, the Anteaters shot 29% from the field. They scored only 40 points, their lowest total since the 1979-80 season.

So what happened to UCI, which shoots 48% as a team for the season? Why did UCI score 38 points under its seasonal scoring average? It didn’t take long to find a player to come up with the perfect cliche.

“When you shoot from the outside, you live or die with it,” said Fresno State forward Scott Barnes, who ended up loving every minute of it.

Well, almost every minute of it.

In fact, UCI’s strategy was effective for a while. The Anteaters (6-7 in the PCAA and 11-13 overall) led by five points at halftime and built a seven-point lead when center Johnny Rogers opened the second half with a basket.

The Bulldogs rallied to take the lead at 33-32 with 11:52 left on Mitch Arnold’s basket, but Tod Murphy put UCI back in front with one of his own with 11:31 remaining.

Who would have guessed that the Anteaters would score just two baskets the rest of the way.

“We just completely stopped getting it done,” UCI Coach Bill Mulligan said. “I think it was a combination of Fresno State’s defense and our very inept offense. We have guys that are great shooters that didn’t shoot at all.”

Mulligan’s strategy of trying to beat Fresno from outside might have worked had just one of his shooters shown up for work.

Instead, he got this:

- Rogers, perhaps one of the best pure shooters in college basketball, made only 4 of 14 attempts. He’s shooting 53% for the season. Rogers also added six turnovers.

- Murphy, shooting 54% from the field, made only 3 of 8 shots.

- Forward Troy Carmon was 4 for 14.

- Guard Jerome Lee was 2 for 11.

- Guard Boris King was 2 for 8.

Remember, this was the night Mulligan was going to beat Fresno with the three-point shot. So UCI, which had made 48% of its three-pointers this season, made 4 of 20 against the Bulldogs.

UCI made only 6 of 29 shots in the second half.

Is it any wonder why the Bulldogs improved to 10-3 in conference and 15-6 overall?

Certainly, as always, you can give credit to the Bulldog defense, which is allowing opponents only 53.4 points per game, the lowest in the country.

But with that kind of shooting by UCI, the Bulldogs couldn’t help but win. Fresno State, a little flat after its big win over Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday, was very beatable Monday.

The Bulldogs, though, outscored UCI, 17-5, in the final 10 minutes to get the win.

It all happened so fast. One minute UCI was leading and the next was struggling to draw rim.

“When you start missing shots, everything starts breaking down,” Mulligan said. “That’s what happened in the last 10 minutes.”

Barnes scored on a drive to put Fresno up by two (37-35) with 9:59 left. Then Jos Kuipers made a free throw. Barnes made two more. Brian Salone scored inside to put the Bulldogs up by seven at 42-35. After another UCI miss, Salone took a pass from Ron Strain and slammed it for a basket to make it 44-35. And that was it.

“When you allow Irvine only 15 points in the second half, you know you’re playing good defense,” Fresno State Coach Boyd Grant said.

There goes Grant, talking about his defense again.

For the record, Grant’s team didn’t try any three-point shots. Grant hates gimmicks in basketball, but he refused to criticize Mulligan for taking advantage of the rule.

“They were trying to spread our defense out,” Grant said. “We’re content with that. They didn’t go inside on us and I thought they could. But Mulligan’s tough to beat. I’ll never criticize him.”

Barnes led Fresno State with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Rogers led UCI with 10 points.

It was Mulligan’s fifth straight loss at Selland Arena.

“The only regret I have is coming to town,” he said. “I can’t win here.”