Irvine Knocks NIT Crown Off UCLA, 80-74

After his team upset UCLA, 80-74, Thursday night in the opening round of the NIT, and did it on the hallowed court at Pauley Pavilion, no less, UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan held back tears of joy by throwing in bits of quivering laughter.

“This has got to be the biggest win ever for our program and a big win for the (Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.),” Mulligan said. “I’m just thrilled. I feel like crying. I am just so thrilled.”

It also was a big win for the coach, who might want to use the box score as an addendum to the resume he gives to USC.

Irvine, now 17-12, will play at Brigham Young Tuesday in the next round of the NIT.

For UCLA, which won the NIT last season, the season is over. The Bruins finished with a record of 15-14.

UCLA’s star forward, Reggie Miller, was held to just 16 points as Wayne Engelstad, Troy Carmon and Rick Ciaccio took turns working against him in the Anteaters’ man-to-man plan.

As Irvine center Tod Murphy put it: “Oh, my goodness. Those three guys did a super job. They kept their eyes on Reggie’s belly button the whole game, and they did a good job of keeping the ball away from him.”

The Bruins had to rely for their scoring on guard Montel Hatcher, who made 11 of 17 shots from the field and two free throws for 24 points.

It wasn’t enough.

Irvine forward Johnny Rogers had 29 points, and Murphy had 20 points and 17 rebounds.

Again, it was the inside game that proved to be the Bruins’ undoing.

UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard said: “We lost to a good team. We knew they were going to be a good team. But the important thing is that we fought back, and I’m proud of that.

“I’m not ashamed of our players’ performance tonight. . . . It was a good game. It was an entertaining game for the fans.”

True. Especially for the visiting fans, and there were lot of Irvine fans among the crowd of 7,089.

Mulligan said: “Our fans were just unbelievable. I have never seen this kind of crowd on the road for us.”

So the Bruins really did not enjoy much of a homecourt advantage. And the officials, all from the Western Athletic Conference, seemed to have no qualms about calling foils on the Bruins’ star player.

Miller sat down after picking up his fourth foul on an offensive call with 14:19 left to play. At that point, he had just 12 points and the Bruins were trailing, 50-43.

Miller came back into the game with 8:42 to play while Murphy was in the process of making two free throws that gave Irvine a 60-49 lead.

Irvine’s lead went to 14 points before UCLA closed in just enough to make it exciting, tying the game at 68-68 before a series of Bruin turnovers helped lead to five straight points by Irvine.

While the game was getting away, the Bruins also lost center Jack Haley, who fouled out with 1:41 to play. Haley was trying to get the ball inbounds to freshman guard Pooh Richardson when Scott Brooks stole the pass and went to the basket. In trying to stop Brooks, Haley fell on top of him.

Brooks made just one of the two resulting free throws.

Mulligan was disappointed in his team’s shooting from the foul line, even thought the Anteaters did score 26 points on free throws.

Irvine had led by eight points at halftime, 39-31, after hitting a hot-shooting streak toward the end of the period.

Hatcher made 6 of 9 shots in the first half to keep the Bruins in the game. But even with Hatcher’s percentage to boost the total, the Bruins shot just 36.1% for the half.

NIT Notes

The Pac-10 was 0-3 in tournament games Thursday night. Besides UCLA’s loss to a PCAA team, Cal lost an NIT game to a WCAC team (Loyola Marymount) and Washington lost an NCAA game to a Big Ten team (Michigan State). UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard said: “It was a bad night for the Pac-10, but we’re a young conference. Our conference will be very competitive next year. I hope Lute Olson (of Arizona) has good fortune tomorrow night (against Auburn) down in Long Beach.” . . . Reggie Miller finished the season with 750 points, the second-highest single season in UCLA history behind only the 870 points accumulated by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at that time Lew Alcindor, in 1967. As for being held to 16 Thursday night, Miller said: “They had a man on me every place I went. They kept switching off. The officials let us play. I have been screaming at the Pac-10 officials all year to let us play. Tonight we played the kind of game I like. It was physical. Give UCI credit--they came in here and took it to us.”