THE COLLEGES : Anteaters Survive Bad Break : Irvine Beats Fresno St. in Two Overtimes Despite Regression

UC Irvine, the basketball team with more personalities than Sybil, 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 into their Lakers impersonation.

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 into silence. The Anteaters, who failed to call a time out, were obviously shocked, too. Both teams were relatively quiet in the first overtime, each scoring just four points.

The Anteaters (13-10, 8-6) finally regained control of the game--and themselves--in the second overtime. Center Wayne Engelstad, who led all scorers with 34 points, scored five in the final overtime period. He made 12 of 20 field goal attempts, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, and 8 of 10 free throws.

“How the hell can I explain it?” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said after delivering a postgame tirade at decibel levels normally 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.

“Ask (Kevin) Floyd about taking care of the ball. Ask (Mike) Hess about defending against the three-pointer.

“The only way they have a chance to get back in the game is by shooting the three-pointer and we let them. It was disgusting performance, but a terrible win is still better than a loss.

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--a helter-skelter, chaos-creating pressure man-to-man--keyed a rally that helped the Anteaters overcome a nine-point Bulldog lead with 17:12 left in the second half.

“UCI has played pretty good defense this year and their pressure bothered us,” Bulldog Coach Ron Adams said. “They deny the pass really well and they took us out of our rhythm.”

It was the Anteaters who lost all semblance of synchronicity down the stretch, though. They crumbled like a cookie in the crunch, but clung on to the win by doing what they do best: shoot free throws.

A Floyd jumper and an Engelstad layup gave the Anteaters a four-point advantage early in the second overtime and they made 7 of 8 free throws when Fresno State was forced to foul. Irvine made 24 of 32 free throws on the night.

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. Floyd, who finished with 10 points, was the only other Anteater in double figures.

“It was a gut-wrenching game,” Adams said.

And not just for the losers. It certainly made Mulligan sick.