UC Irvine Is Beaten, 80-71, by Boise St.

The final indignity for Bill Mulligan, UC Irvine basketball coach, came after his team had lost, 80-71, to Boise State Tuesday night before a crowd of 4,129 in the Boise State Pavilion.

The Anteaters had committed 27 turnovers, had made just 41% of their shots from the field and had been out-rebounded, 42-34.

And yet, the topper didn’t come until a Boise State male cheerleader walked Mulligan’s way, extended his hand and said: “You guys are pretty good, coach. Are you Division I?”

The rough part was, the guy was serious.

“This game is my fault,” Mulligan said later. “I changed the offense and I think I allowed them (his players) too much freedom.”

Speaking on behalf of the Irvine players, whose record fell to 3-2, guard Scott Brooks said: “He (Mulligan) didn’t lose this game. We just didn’t play smart. We didn’t take advantage of golden opportunities.”

They both offer excellent arguments.

Mulligan deviated from the three-guard, one-post offense that had helped the Anteaters to surprising wins over Bradley and Nebraska. Instead he chose to go with a two-post offense designed to take advantage of Irvine’s superior size.

It didn’t. Boise State’s quicker inside men scored almost at will. Of the Broncos’ 17 first-half baskets, 13 came from five feet or closer. The Broncos’ 6-foot 5-inch forward, Arnell Jones, scored 14 points in the first half and 21 in the game.

Irvine led by as many as eight points in the first half, but Jones scored eight points in the last four minutes of the half on three layups and a dunk to put Boise State ahead, 37-36, at halftime.

“We knew they were going to be bigger than us, so we knew we had to be quicker,” Jones said. “I’m not saying they were slower, but I could definitely go around them.”

In the second half, Boise State center Jeff Kelly scored 10 of his 18 points in a three-minute spurt that gave the Broncos a 57-42 lead with 13:18 left in the game.

As Boise State was scoring inside, Irvine’s front line was busy committing nine turnovers. Several balls were simply dropped out of bounds as Irvine’s big men attempted to hurry their shots.

Boise State (5-1) blocked six shots, including Chris Child’s block of Mike Doktorczk’s dunk attempt. Childs is 6-3.

Also, the usually reliable Irvine backcourt of Brooks, Joe Buchanan and Mike Hess turned the ball over 18 times.

“I don’t know what it was,” Brooks said. “We played horrible. They played good defense, but I don’t think it should have affected us that much.”

The Broncos did a good job of slowing down the Irvine break. The Anteaters scored on just one drive in the first half, and that was by 6-8 forward Wayne Englestad.

Putting all that aside, Irvine did rally to tie the score at 62-62 with with 5:20 left. Not surprisingly, it was the shooting of Brooks and Buchanan that brought the Anteaters back.

Boise State built the lead back to 70-65, when Buchanan attempted a three-point shot that was blocked by guard Doug Usitalo, who then made the basket at the other end for a 72-65 Boise State lead with 2:31 left.