Irvine’s Brooks Shoots Down 49ers, 85-63

The numbers suggested that UC Irvine guard Scott Brooks should have put his high-arching jump shot in storage for a little while . . . say until sometime in mid-March.

Brooks entered Thursday night’s 85-63 Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. win over Cal State Long Beach shooting 43.8% from the field. OK, so he leads the nation in free throw percentage. But since conference play began three weeks ago, he had shot the ball 48 times, making all of 19.

“If I was a coach and a player was shooting like that, he wouldn’t be playing for me,” Brooks said.

But Brooks plays for Bill Mulligan, and Mulligan decided to let Brooks keep doing it until he got it right.

It happened against the 49ers, as the 5-foot-11 junior scored a career-high 23 points, including 5 of 6 shots from three-point range, to help lead the Anteaters to the victory that leaves them 5-2 in PCAA play and 9-7 overall.

Long Beach is 1-7 and 5-14, with only marginal gains in sight in Coach Ron Palmer’s quest to “bring the program back to where it was in the ‘70s.”

Johnny Rogers had a game-high 14 rebounds to help the Anteaters out-rebound Long Beach, 40-24. And rebounding is supposed to be one of the things the 49ers do well. They entered the game No. 2 in the conference in that category.

Long Beach’s sophomore center, DeAnthony Langston, tied his career-high with 24 points, leading all scorers. But those were of little consequence as the Anteaters had four players in double figures and compiled their biggest margin of victory since a 99-75 win over Loyola Marymount on Dec. 27.

Irvine had a 42-29, halftime lead. And it was Brooks who frustrated the 49ers each time they tried to put together anything vaguely resembling a run in the second half with his bombs-away three-pointers. Afterward, he got quite a chuckle when asked if Mulligan has given him the “green light,” the freedom to shoot whenever he feels he has a shot.

“I sort of have a yellow light,” he laughed.

Brooks wasn’t the only one to crack a smile in the UCI dressing room afterward. Forward Troy Carmon, playing against the man who coached him at Long Beach Poly High School, had 12 points and 9 rebounds in one of his best effort’s of the season.

“I’d like to play half-way decent against Coach Palmer,” he said. “I have good memories playing for him, and now I guess I have good memories playing against him. But the bottom line is that I just want to play well.”

Carmon combined with Rogers and Murphy to collect 30 rebounds and deny the 49ers second shots throughout much of the second half.

Long Beach was able to pull to within 10 points after halftime, but could never draw closer. The 49ers seemed to get a boost when Irvine guard Mike Hes was called for intentionally fouling Langston on a breakaway layup. Langston hit one of two free throws, cutting the lead to 51-41 with 12:44 to play.

The Anteaters outscored Long Beach, 20-12, over the next seven minutes to stretch the lead to 71-53. The outburst was concluded by Brooks’ three-point shot from the right baseline. Brooks, sounding quite unlike a 43% shooter, said the three-point line is well within his range.

“It’s about a 19-footer,” he said. “I can hit that all night. So can a lot of guys on our team.

“For a lot of teams, the rule’s not much of a plus. But for us, it’s a big advantage.”

Brooks was also 2 of 2 from the free throw line to keep his high percentage (.956) from the line intact.

Murphy used free throws to pull within one point of tying Ben McDonald for second on UCI’s career scoring list. Murphy drew numerous fouls inside against the 49ers, and took advantage by making 10 of 12 free throws.