UC Irvine’s Brooks Beats Pacific and Gives Mulligan 100th Win

UC Irvine toyed with Bill Mulligan’s milestone Saturday night.

A University of the Pacific team scrambling to gain some measure of respect in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. seemed determined to make Mulligan wait until another time and place to get his 100th victory at UCI.

But the Anteaters did a little scrambling of their own in the final minute, and the result was an 80-76 victory in front of 1,341 spectators in Crawford Hall.

Guard Scott Brooks hit a three-point shot from the right corner with 33 seconds to play and the shot clock running out to give Irvine a 78-76 lead after UOP had gone in front, 76-75, with 1:13 to play on two free throws by Rich Anema.

Brooks, who wasn’t offered a scholarship to UOP after a successful prep career at a high school a short drive from the Stockton campus, then prevented the Tigers from tying the game by recovering a loose ball in front of the UOP bench. Brooks got the ball to Joe Buchanan, who threw a long pass to Troy Carmon, who was ahead of the pack and dunked with 9 seconds to play to provide the final margin.

The win gives Mulligan a 100-65 record in his sixth season at Irvine. But he was more concerned with the fact that it gives UCI an 8-4 record in the PCAA (12-9 overall) as the Anteaters prepare for the most demanding part of their conference schedule.

UCI entered this game with a rather shaky grasp on third place in the standings. By night’s end, fourth-place San Jose State was upset by Cal State Long Beach and New Mexico State was stunned by Utah State. Monday night, the Anteaters will meet New Mexico State (8-3, 14-6) with an opportunity to move into a tie for second.

But first the Anteaters had to get past a UOP team that had won two of three games since Coach Tom O’Neill had replaced four of five starters.

Senior forward Tod Murphy led the Anteaters with 20 points, moving within eight points of a milestone of his own. That’s what Murphy will need Monday to pass Dave Baker as the leading scorer in Irvine history.

“It would have been nice to get it at home, more for my parents then for myself,” Murphy said. “But it’ll come eventually. I’d rather have the win.”

Johnny Rogers, who sat out Thursday’s win over Fresno State with the flu, came off the bench to play 27 minutes and score 16 points. It was Rogers who knocked a pass away from UOP’s Brent Counts, enabling Brooks to recover and the Anteaters to maintain their lead in the final seconds.

Guard Domingo Rosario kept UOP in the game by scoring a game-high 24 points, despite leaving the game for more than eight minutes to have his left knee taped.

Mulligan downplayed reaching the 100-win mark.

“All it means is that I’m getting old,” he said.

Saturday’s win may have added a few gray hairs to his sparsely covered scalp.

After leading by as many as nine points in the first half and holding a 64-58 lead with 9:56 to play, the Anteaters needed a high-arching three-pointer from Brooks to present Mulligan with the victory.

After Anema’s two free throws, the Anteaters tried to get the ball inside to Murphy or Rogers, but were running out of time on the 45-second clock. Brooks got the ball in the corner, well aware that time was of the essence.

“The first option was to look inside to Tod or John,” Brooks said. “But I had to shoot it. I knew it was in when I let it go. It felt good.”

Said Mulligan: “I just wanted him to make a shot, I don’t care if it was a three-pointer.”

O’Neill said he didn’t want his team to be beaten by a shot from Murphy or Rogers.

“We had to have help underneath on the big guys,” he said. “We had the post covered. They just got the ball to Brooks.”

Brooks finished with 14 points. Buchanan, making his second straight start at forward/guard, hit 4 of 5 shots in the first half and finished with 10 points.

Brooks, who returns to the Stockton area each summer, said he knew the Tigers would give UCI a difficult game, despite their record (4-8, 11-12).

“I played with those guys all summer,” he said. “I know what they can do. I was trying to tell our players, ‘Hey, these guys are good.’ ”