Irvine Gets Cold in Grant’s Tomb and Is Beaten, 53-48

It isn’t easy for visitors to win basketball games at Selland Arena. This is the place the locals call Grant’s Tomb . . . where opponents come to get buried.

It happened again Thursday night. Fresno State beat UC Irvine, 53-48, before 10,132 mostly red-clad spectators.

Marvin Carter and Leo Walker hit four free throws in the final 34 seconds, enabling the Bulldogs to hold a lead that, once so secure, had turned precarious. Fresno State is 2-1 in Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. play and 9-5 overall. Irvine is 6-6 and 2-1.

The Anteaters came into the game leading the PCAA in field-goal percentage. They left it wondering how their shooting touch had abandoned them for the second straight time in this seemingly innocent little arena named after a former Fresno mayor and nicknamed after the current Fresno State coach, Boyd Grant.

Irvine attempted 54 shots from the field. Only 14 of those went in. That works out to 25.9%. That was enough to leave Coach Bill Mulligan’s face as red as a Bulldog booster jacket. But there was more.

Senior forward Tod Murphy, who came into the game leading Irvine scorers with an average of 22.7 points a game, had four points before fouling out with 1:55 to play. He was 0 for 6 from the field. It was Murphy’s worst game since a six-point performance midway through last season. The opponent in that one? Fresno State.

Johnny Rogers made only 5 of 19 shots and finished with 15 points.

The less-than-friendly environment certainly seemed to affect Irvine in the first half. The Anteaters were scoreless for the first 5:34, shot 18.2% (4 of 22) and were fortunate to leave the floor with only a 23-17 deficit.

Rogers had 11 points in the first half but was the only Anteater to score until Murphy hit two free throws with 2:05 remaining. Outside of Rogers, the Anteaters were 0 for 14 from the floor in the first half. Irvine cut Fresno’s lead to 20-17 when Murphy hit both ends of a one-and-one. But Fresno padded the lead on its ensuing possession when Mitchell was left alone near the top of the key and made a three-point shot with three seconds left.

After the halftime buzzer, Irvine assistant coach Mike Bokosky and Fresno State Coach Boyd Grant became involved in a finger-pointing argument near the scorer’s table.