UC Irvine’s Running Game Routs Penn, 90-66

UC Irvine’s future opponents can learn a couple of valuable lessons by watching the tape of Friday night’s 90-66 victory over Pennsylvania:

(1) Don’t let the Anteaters entice you into a running game--even if you’re getting some easy baskets; Irvine uses 10 players and they’re used to a breakneck pace.

(2) Keep center Ed Johansen and forward Wayne Engelstad away from the offensive boards. When you think of Irvine, power basketball is not the first thing that pops to mind. But Johansen and Engelstad have a knack for being in the right place and can put back a lot of their teammates’ misses if you give them the chance.

Penn, of course, learned all this the hard way. The Quakers stayed with Irvine for much of the first half, but tired in the final five minutes before the intermission and trailed, 45-33, at halftime. They caught their breath at the break and cut Irvine’s advantage to two (49-47) on an alley-oop dunk by Tyrone Pitts, but Irvine outscored Penn, 28-5, in a 10-minute stretch midway through the second half.

“We looked good at times and really bad at times,” said Engelstad, who led Irvine with 18 points and had 9 rebounds. “But we ran our break well and we went to the boards hard. The break is our game. If we get them running, we’re in good shape.”

Irvine (4-2) is off to its best start since the 1982-83 season when it got off to a 5-1 jump.

Pitts, who is averaging 19.3, scored 14, including a few backboard-shaking dunks. The Quakers’ other guard, Walt Frazier, son of the former New York Knicks star, led Penn with 16 points. Forward Ben Spiva scored 14 and had a team-high 7 rebounds for Penn, which dropped to 1-3 this season.

Irvine dominated the boards, outrebounding the Quakers, 54-38. Of those 54 rebounds, 30 were offensive. Johansen, who had 15 rebounds, grabbed 9 under his own basket and scored 10 points.

Irvine shot 49% but uncharacteristically made just one three-pointer and attempted only eight. The Anteaters proved that, on this night at least, they can win without making a dozen triple-pointers.

And there were a couple of other positives.

Senior Frank Woods, a key player last year who had not bee afactor so far this season, moved back into the power forward spot and scored 10 points and had 6 rebounds. Woods had asked to be moved into a wing position earlier in the season.

And Junior Kevin Floyd, who has been riding an emotional roller coaster after being suspended for the first two games of the season, seems to have found an even keel. He turned in his best all-around performance Friday night. Floyd, swinging from small forward to off guard, hit 5 of 7 field goal attempts and all 3 free throws to score 13 points.