UC Irvine Tries to Run and Almost Loses

UC Irvine changed back into a fast-break team at the most inopportune times Thursday night, but somehow hung on to defeat Fresno State, 82-78, in double overtime.

The Anteaters, who started the season with a run-and-gun approach but have been increasingly deliberate of late, led by 10 (63-53) with 1:49 left in regulation when they suddenly decided to go to their fast break. And they almost ran themselves out of the game.

Irvine ran a total of about 20 seconds off the clock in its next four possessions and had three turnovers, a missed layup and no points to show for it. The Bulldogs (8-14 overall and 5-8 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.) closed the gap, and guard Andre Sims made a pair of 25-foot three-pointers in the final 16 seconds to send the game into overtime.

The second, with four seconds left, stunned the crowd of 2,053 in the Bren Center. Both teams were relatively quiet in the first overtime, each scoring just four points.

Irvine (13-10, 8-6) finally regained control of the game in the second overtime. Center Wayne Engelstad, who led all scorers with 34 points, scored five in the final overtime period.

“How the hell can I explain it?” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said after delivering a postgame tirade usually reserved for losses. “We don’t tell them to do that. The (locker room) door is open. Go in and ask them what they were doing.”

Engelstad, only able to joke because the Anteaters had managed the win, said it was a plot to “kill Coach. . . . We want to send his blood pressure up.”

“After the win at San Jose State (Saturday), Coach said we were playing ‘vomit basketball.’ Well, I wonder what you call this. It was really ugly. If we would have lost this game, it would have been a terrible, terrible loss.

“It’s like we completely forgot that all we had to do was work the clock. We just went helter-skelter.”

Irvine’s defense keyed a rally that helped the Anteaters overcome a nine-point Bulldog lead with 17:12 left in the second half. But the Anteaters broke down in every facet of the game down the stretch.

Forwards Jervis Cole, who had 23 points and 8 rebounds, and Mike Mitchell, who had 17 points and 7 rebounds, led the way for Fresno State, which outrebounded Irvine, 40-31. Kevin Floyd, who finished with 10 points, was the only other Anteater in double figures.