No. 1 Las Vegas Rolls Past UCI, 114-72

If UC Irvine’s tiny band of overachievers could take Iowa, the nation’s No. 3 basketball team, to the final buzzer before losing by a basket, what could possibly happen when the Anteaters got their chance against Numero Uno, Nevada Las Vegas?

You don’t really want to know.

It was gruesome. It was brutal. It was Las Vegas 114, Irvine 72.

Saturday’s night Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. opener in front of 19,058 at Thomas and Mack Center was every bit as bad as the final score suggested. The 42-point loss was second worst in Irvine history, surpassed only by a 129-57 defeat, also to Las Vegas, in 1975.

“It was a blitzkrieg, just amazing,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “And they were really nice to us too. They took it easy on us. They could’ve beaten us by a hundred.”

Las Vegas (12-0) toyed with 50, building a 47-point lead (102-55) with 5:10 left in the game. The Rebels had two players, Armon Gilliam and Gary Graham, score 20 points and another, Freddie Banks, add 19 as they shot 52.3% from the field.

Irvine (5-5), a team that lives off its shooting, managed but 30% from the field (24 of 80). In the second half, the Anteaters shot 23.8%.

What happened to the heart of the Irvine offense, its guards? Good question. Scott Brooks was 5 of 13 and finished with 14 points--more than 10 below his season’s average. Joe Buchanan was 2 of 14. Mike Hess was 2 of 7.

“I don’t think they can play any better and we can play any worse,” Mulligan said. “We didn’t do anything right. The players were awful, I was awful--even the assistant coaches didn’t do anything right.

“You had one team playing up, one team playing down, and they met head-on that way. You saw what happened.”

A year ago, Irvine had swept the Rebels in PCAA play, upsetting them both at Irvine and Las Vegas. Those losses stuck deep in the Rebel craw.

“They were bragging that they beat us here and there and that really made us mad,” Banks said. “We wanted to go out and kick their butts.”

Mulligan had tried to downplay the emotional impact thoses victories would have in Saturday’s game. “I don’t think basketball is that emotional a game,” he said earlier this week. “The first five minutes, Vegas will be sky-high, but you can’t maintain that.”

Oh yeah?

At Thomas and Mack Center, the psych job begins early. Banners and message boards welcome you to “Tark’s Shark Tank,” a theme the locals can’t seem to get enough of. During pregame introductions, the silhouette of a shark is flashed onto the court, right at the feet of the visitors. The band plays the theme from “Jaws” and, as accompaniment, 19,000 red-and-white clad fans open and close their arms, up and down, mimicking the mouth of a Great White.

You get the idea.

Amid this, the Anteaters opened their conference season. Barely 10 minutes later, they knew how the opener was going to end.

Irvine came out nervous and tentative, looking intimidated and forcing shots. Las Vegas guards Mark Wade and Graham hounded Brooks, limiting him to two shots--both misses--in the first 10 minutes.

That freed the Anteaters’ other guard, Joe Buchanan, for a few open shots. He took eight of them in the first half.

He made two.

According to Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian, the outcome hinged on removing Brooks from the Irvine offense.

“Wade did a good job on their little kid, Brooks,” Tarkanian said. “The key was taking them out of their transition game. That’s their heart. It was nothing tricky. We just had Mark drop back with their shooter (Brooks) after every shot.”

At the other end, Las Vegas came out hitting 10 of its first 13 shots, breaking out to a 23-9 lead in barely six minutes. As expected, the Rebels pushed around the Anteaters inside, but the big damage was done from the outside.

Yes, the Anteaters, those poster boys for the NCAA’s three-point shot campaign, were outmatched even beyond 19-9. In the first half, Las Vegas sank 75% of its three-pointers--9 of 12--with four different players doing the casting away.

At the same time, Irvine shot 37%. That was including everything--layups, bank shots and jumpers.

Finally, Brooks was able to wriggle loose for a few hurried set shots. He hit 4 of 7, including three 3-pointers, to finish with 12 points at the half.

Despite that, Irvine entered the second half down, 64-40. Las Vegas, which shot 60% in the period, also outrebounded the Anteaters, 30-12.

The game disintegrated in the second half, with the Rebels strutting their stuff with a few stuffs and behind-the-back passes. Tarkanian’s usual game-time snack, a white terry-cloth towel, remained neatly folded under his seat. Tark spent most of the period relaxing in his chair, even laughing.

And in the stands, the Rebel rousers rubbed it in. One fan hoisted a sign that read, “UNLV No. 1 Wants Boston No. 2.”

Mulligan has no argument with the No. 1 part, as far as the college rankings go.

“They deserve it,” he said. “I voted for them No. 1 before this. I’m glad to see a team in the conference playing that well.”

But he’s most glad about the fact that Irvine doesn’t have to see Las Vegas again until Jan. 29. The Anteaters will need about a month to recover from this one.