UC Irvine Loses to Nevada Reno, 89-86

Late Thursday night, University of Nevada Reno guard Rob Harden hitched a ride aboard a bus taking the UC Irvine Anteaters from Sacramento to Reno for the Nevada Reno Tournament. Harden had gone home for the holidays, and the heavy fog that closed the airport in Reno had left him stranded in Sacramento.

Saturday night, Harden showed his appreciation by scoring 33 points to lead the Wolf Pack to an 89-86 win over UC Irvine in the championship game in Lawlor Events Center.

Harden, a 5-10 senior with an unorthodox shooting style, took advantage of the three-point play rule that UCI Coach Bill Mulligan agreed to play with before the game. It was his long-range semi-jumpers that led to UCI’s downfall in the Anteaters’ first appearence in a tournament championship game since 1981.

Harden finished with 7 three-point shots on 10 attempts. The loss dropped UCI to 4-5. Nevada Reno is 5-7. Harden was named the tournament’s co-most valuable player, along with teammate Dwayne Randall.

“Harden really killed us,” Mulligan said. “He didn’t shoot that well last night. The assistant athletic director here told me that the farther out he is, the better off he is.”

Reno had a 12-6 scoring spurt to take a 75-69 lead with 4:08 to play. Harden capped the burst with a three-pointer that came after Tod Murphy had slapped away his attempted reverse layup. Following an Irvine timeout, Harden hit another three-pointer to give the Wolf Pack a 78-69 lead with 3:21 remaining.

Johnny Rogers led Irvine with 29 points, including 25 in the second half.

The first half evolved into a contest to see which team could hit the most long-range jump shots. It ended up in a 45-45 tossup.

Irvine led most of the way, but Reno never fell more than three points behind, thanks mostly to Randall and Harden. Harden had 12 points, all of which came on three-point shots. Randall was effective both inside and outside, and led all scorers at halftime with 17 points.

Reno took a 45-43 lead with 10 seconds remaining when James Moore hit from the top of the key. Scott Brooks, who finished with 18 points, hurried the ball down court and passed it inside to Murphy, who drove for a layin at the buzzer to tie it at 45-45.

The Anteaters out-shot Reno in the first half, hitting 53% of their field-goal attempts to the Wolf Pack’s 42%.

Brooks, who had scored a career-high 18 points against Loyola Friday, nearly equalled that with 16 at halftime.

Irvine entered this tournament coming off losses to Loyola Marymount and Oral Roberts. The Anteaters were playing well below preseason expectations, and the players knew it.

“It looked like we were on the verge of crumbling,” Rogers said.

UCI opened the tournament Friday night against Loyola Marymount, a team which had beaten them by 22 points just nine days earlier. The circumstances leading up to the rematch all pointed to another rout. Murphy was questionable with bruised ribs. Troy Carmon, who had started the first seven games at forward, was ill on Thursday and did not make the trip. The Anteaters arrived in town at 3 a.m. Friday by bus from Sacramento, altering their travel plans because of heavy fog at Reno airport.

It didn’t end there. Mulligan was taken to a nearby hospital Friday afternoon, suffering from a kidney stone. He was treated and released in time to return to the Anteaters’ hotel and go with the team to Lawlor Events Center.

All of which made UCI’s 99-75 win over Loyola Friday all the more surprising. Loyola didn’t exactly bounce back in Saturday night’s consolation game. The Lions fell to 6-5 with a 77-56 loss to Portland.

Loyola shot just 41.5% from the floor and was outrebounded, 34-29. Guard Keith Smith, held to a season-low 14 points in the loss to Irvine, could only equal that output against Portland. The 6-4 senior was 7 of 19 shooting.