Engelstad Is Key to UC Irvine Win : 6-8 Center Scores 35 Points in 87-81 Victory Over Utah St.

It had not been a wonderful week for Wayne Engelstad.

Sunday night, the 6-foot 8-inch, 250-pound center sat in a team meeting and listened as UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan told his teammates to “talk to the fat guy in the front row if you want to know why we lost to Las Vegas (Saturday).”

Monday, he had one of his front teeth knocked out in practice and got a nice 10-stitch gash in his lip as a bonus.

He spent Tuesday at the oral surgeon and Wednesday managed to get in a little practice.

But when it came to crunch time Thursday night, Engelstad was dishing it out instead of taking it, for a change. He scored 14 of his 35 points in the final six minutes as Irvine beat Utah State, 87-81, in front of 2,863 in the Bren Center.

With Irvine trailing, 71-70, Engelstad popped out to the top of the key, got the ball and hit a three-pointer. On the Anteaters’ next possession, he hit a short baseline jumper. Two minutes later, he made a turnaround fall-away jumper to put Irvine up, 80-74.

The Aggies rallied to tie the game, 81-81, with 1:26 remaining, but Engelstad came up with the play of the game, driving around Gilbert Pete for a reverse lay-in. He then blocked Jon Judkins’ attempted layup and made two free throws with 19 seconds left for good measure.

Even Mulligan had a few words of praise for his senior postman.

“He saw an opening and he took it . . . and I’m glad he did,” Mulligan said. “Yeah, he shook off the effects of this week pretty well. Of course he always shakes me off.”

The Aggies (9-5 overall, 4-1 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.) ran into something rare in the first half Thursday--a tenacious Anteater defense.

“They shot 28% in the first half, and I’d like to think we had something to do about that,” Mulligan said.

Irvine (7-6, 2-2) did an especially good job of containing Aggie point guard Kevin Nixon in the early going with Mike Hess and Kevin Floyd combining to hold him to 3-of-9 shooting before halftime. Nixon rebounded in the second half, finishing with 17 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

Irvine led, 39-34, at halftime, but it was Engelstad, playing with four fouls the last 12:42 of the game, who made the difference. He made 12 of 16 shots, 10 of 12 free throws and grabbed 6 rebounds.

“I was a little tentative for awhile in the second half,” Engelstad said, “because if I fouled out, he (Mulligan) would rip me for fouling out of a big game. Sometimes, it’s a losing situation, no matter what you do.”

Thursday night, even Mulligan would agree, was a winning situation.