Oral Roberts Hands Mulligan, Irvine a Frustrating Loss

It was just two weeks ago that UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan was comparing his team to the one he had two years ago, which he considers his best in five seasons at Irvine.

But in the past six days, the Anteaters have given Mulligan cause to revaluate things. Consider his reaction to Monday night’s 69-63 loss to Oral Roberts:

“I’ve never been so frustrated with a team in my life. We just broke down. I’d cry, but I’m too old to cry.”

Oral Roberts came to Irvine with a four-game winning streak and a habit of making the long trek to California only to return home with a loss. The Titans haven’t won in California since a 71-70 win over USC in 1976-77.

But Irvine served as a passive host, and first-year Oral Roberts Coach Ted Owens left with a smile.

“This is a big win,” he said. “I happen to think Irvine is a very fine basketball team. Offensively, it’s the best we’ve played.”

Offensively and defensively, it was the worst Irvine has played. The Anteaters (3-4) were held below 70 points for the first time this season, and were outscored, 23-12, in the final 10 minutes.

Akin Akin-Otiko, a 6-foot-6 junior from Nigeria, gave the Oral Roberts its first lead of the second half with a 14-foot jumper with 3:05 to play. Johnny Rogers gave Irvine a 61-60 lead with 2:30 left on a jumper from the baseline, but Akin-Otiko put Oral Roberts ahead to stay at the 1:46 mark with a long-range jumper from the baseline with the 45-second clock running out.

Woody Jones led Oral Roberts with 21 points on 10-for-11 shooting. Akin-Otiko had 17 and Maurice Smith 15. Rogers led Irvine scorers with 17 points.

“Sometimes you wonder if everybody’s head’s into basketball and if they really care,” he said. “With efforts like this one and the last one (a 122-10 0 loss to Loyola), you have to wonder.

“I know the guys on this team and I know they have pride, but that pride doesn’t show up. It’s got to start showing. We can talk all we want, but after a while, it’s just lip service.”

Tod Murphy, who came into the game as the Anteaters’ leading scorer (25.5 points per game), played with bruised ribs and was in obvious pain afterward.

Irvine was fortunate to leave the court at halftime with a 33-29 lead. The Anteaters got out to a 13-4 lead in the first five minutes before turnovers and cold shooting allowed Oral Roberts to get back into the game.

Rogers gave UCI an 18-11 lead on a baseline jumper at the 12:45 mark, but the Titans responded by scoring the next 10 points to take a 21-18 lead.

Engelstad’s three-point play with 1:05 left in the half enabled the Anteaters to regain the lead, 31-29, and Rogers came off the bench to hit another jumper from the baseline with five seconds left to put UCI up by four.

Jones led Oral Roberts with 14 points in the first half, most of which came on uncontested jumpers from the free throw line. The Titans shot 65% from the field in the first half, with Jones hitting 7 of 8 shots. UCI was 14 of 25 (56%) from the field at halftime.