UC Irvine Women’s Preview : Anteaters: Without Guns, They Still Hope to Travel

According to the cover of the UC Irvine women’s basketball media guide, which features Coach Dean Andrea and senior Natasha Parks resplendent in Western garb with pistols drawn, the Anteaters will be “Runnin’ and Gunnin’ in the Big West” this season.

They might want to consider runnin’ and hidin’.

The conference coaches picked Irvine to finish eighth in the 10-member Big West, but the Anteaters might have to battle to hang in that high.

“The league is going to be tougher than ever . . . tremendously strong,” Andrea said. “Unfortunately, we may be one of the teams going in the wrong direction.”

Natalie Crawford, 6-foot 6-inch, 3-time all-conference center, is gone and with her goes any semblance of an inside game. Crawford averaged 15 points and 9 rebounds last season. In 27 games, she was the leading scorer 16 times and the top rebounder 19 times.

“We’re going from a big team to a small team in 1 year,” Andrea said. “And our only legitimate big kid (6-2 sophomore Shannon Unfred) has a bad back.”

You’ve heard of the 3-guard offense? How about the 5-guard offense?

“We’re a backcourt team, that’s for sure,” Andrea said. “We’re going to have to extend our defensive pressure, make some opportunities, take some risks and try some things we’ve never tried before.”

Parks, a 6-0 forward who averaged 7 points and 4 rebounds last season, is back. And that about sums up Irvine’s strengths in the experience, leadership and front-line categories.

Junior Shurell Johnson (4 points, 2 rebounds), and sophomores Jenny Lee (5 points, 2 assists) and Kristi Ahlstedt (2 points, 1 assist) return and will start this season after playing reserve roles last year.

Lee, who made the conference’s all-freshman team, led the Anteaters from 3-point range with just 4. Johnson, Irvine’s best defender, had 24 steals.

Dana Douty, a 5-10 forward who was redshirted last season after transfering from Chapman College, will be Irvine’s fifth starter. Douty averaged 14 points and 9 rebounds with Chapman in 1986-87.

Kathy Lizarraga, a 5-4 guard who averaged 27 points a game as a senior at Calexico High School, and Tricia Miller-Kinnell, a 6-2 forward who averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds during her 4 years at Hesperia High, are two freshmen who could see a great deal of playing time.

The Anteaters won’t have a lot of time to perfect their new squirrel-derby offense before they run into some of the best teams in the nation. Their first two Big West games are at Nevada Las Vegas (Dec. 15) and at Cal State Long Beach (Dec. 17).

“Some people say we’re rebuilding. We’re not. We’re reorganizing,” Andrea said. “We weren’t successful last season (11-16 overall, 9-9 in conference) by any stretch of the imagination.

“We’re going to do some things differently, X-and-O-wise. I think we’re going to have to go up and down the court to compete.”

Might as well run. There’s no place to hide.