Irvine Beats San Jose; Mulligan Raps Berry

The incident occured minutes before the opening tipoff and, as things developed, it eventually proved a non-incident. UC Irvine forward Mike Doktorczyk was assessed a technical foul for dunking the ball during pregame warmups, an infraction that gave San Jose State a one-point lead before a second had ticked off the clock Saturday night.

But it was only one point. And with Frank Woods and Wayne Engelstad scoring 19 points apiece, it was easily rendered meaningless in an 89-84 Irvine victory before 2,743 at the Bren Center.

So why was it such a hot topic with the coaches in the aftermath?

Has something to do with the cold war that has existed between Irvine’s Bill Mulligan and San Jose’s Bill Berry ever since the two became Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. rivals.

In Mulligan’s view, the technical foul was a ticky-tack call and he fingered Berry for bringing Doktorczyk’s dunk to referee Blaine Sylvester’s attention.

“Why don’t you talk to Coach Berry? He’s a nice guy,” were Mulligan’s angry first words to reporters. “It was his call.

“I would never do what he did. One of our kids dunked the ball during warmups and he goes screaming to the refs. The ref says, ‘Well, I gotta call it.’ ”

Mulligan said he didn’t see Saturday’s warmups, as is his custom.

“There’s no reason to watch ‘em,” Mulligan said. “Usually, I go over and talk to the other coach . . . although I didn’t do that tonight.”

Across the hall, Berry said it was Sylvester’s call, first and last.

“The ref saw Mike Doktorczyk dunk the ball and he looked at me,” Berry said. “All I could say was, ‘It’s a crazy rule.’ It didn’t look like a flagrant dunk--it was more dropping the ball in the basket. But I guess he had to call a T.”

When Berry was informed of Mulligan’s version, he shot back: “Oh, sure, Bill is gonna think that. Just like he thinks we don’t play. (Mulligan has criticized Berry for his team’s deliberate style).

“Everybody likes to point fingers at other programs and I could point one at Irvine’s . . . I didn’t make the call and if Bill thinks that, well, that’s fine. He can ask the ref if he made the call.”

Uh, about the game. Irvine and San Jose play basketball at the two ends of the spectrum--the Anteaters run, run, run and the Spartans work the 45-second clock--but Saturday, Irvine beat San Jose at both ends.

And the Anteaters did it with what basically amounted to a cameo appearance by Scott Brooks. Brooks, the 5-10 guard who had 43 points in the Bren Center opener Thursday night, missed his first seven shots, went nearly 25 minutes before hitting a field goal and finished with a season-low 13 points.

But Irvine (7-6, 2-2 in the PCAA) won its second straight when four other players scored in double figures. Besides Woods and Engelstad, Joe Buchanan had 16 points and Mike Hess 12.

San Jose, which is 6-7 and 2-2, received 28 points from Rickey Berry and 13 from former Irvine guard Rodney Scott.