Irvine Beats Army Despite Some Weak Defense

UC Irvine’s basketball team won its season opener Friday night, defeating Army, 90-68, in the Freedom Bowl tournament at the Bren Center.

The Anteaters won rather easily, but they weren’t exactly awe-inspiring. They shot reasonably well (49% from the floor), ran the offense on occasion, but their defense was, well, lacking.

Army lost its top four offensive weapons--including Kevin Houston, who led the nation in scoring with a 32.9 average--to graduation, and Cadet Coach Leo Wothke was wondering where the points would come from this season.

If Friday night was any indication, they will come from directly beneath the basket. Almost half of Army’s points, including the first 14 in the second half, came via the layup.

The Anteaters, who meet Manhattan College for the tournament championship at 8 tonight, have been stressing defense since the first day of practice, but it didn’t pay many dividends Friday. Army, picked to finish last in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, plays Air Force in the consolation game at 6. In Friday’s first game, Manhattan beat Air Force, 76-71.

“We’re so into trying to get in the passing lanes and deny the pass that we let them get open for the layups,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “We didn’t have enough pressure on the ball, but we adjusted after the early going in the second half and they didn’t score too many more layups.”

Mulligan was obviously not overjoyed with the Anteaters’ defensive intensity in the early going. He grimaced after layups, turned red and paced after short baseline jumpers and finally screamed: “See the ball. See the ball. Where’s the . . . ball?”

Army, using a version of a four-corners offense much of the first half, kept beating the Anteaters to the basket.

UC Irvine may not be playing much better defense these days, but it’s fouling more. The Anteaters committed 9 first-half personal fouls and three players--Frank Woods, Mike Doktorczyk and Jeff Herdman--had three fouls at halftime. A great many of those fouls came when the Cadets were going in for layins.

The Anteaters won, however, because they did what they do best: Shoot. Wayne Engelstad led Irvine with 23 points.

“They take the kind of shots that normally you’d like a team to take, but they’re such a fine outside shooting team,” Wothke said, shaking his head. “They really lit it up.”