UC Irvine in Foul Mood After Losing to USF, 82-80

If it had been a Final Four game, the play would have gone down in college basketball history as “The Foul.”

But being just a nonconference game between UC Irvine and the University of San Francisco, it will be merely a footnote to what is already a strange season for the Anteaters.

With 7 seconds remaining and the score tied, 80-80, USF guard Kevin Mouton was dribbling about 35 feet from the basket when Irvine’s Rod Palmer reached over Mouton’s body, took an overhand swipe at the ball and hit Mouton on the hip for a foul.

Mouton, who is an 87% free-throw shooter this season, made two free throws, and USF (3-0) beat host Irvine, 82-80, before 2,073 fans at the Bren Center.

Did Palmer foul Mouton intentionally? Mouton certainly thought so.

“He did it on purpose,” Mouton said. “His coach must have told him to, but I don’t know why. He did it real fast (after a timeout). It was intentional. I’d have to say that.”

That’s certainly the way it looked, but . . .

“Hell no, it wasn’t intentional,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “Why would you do that. It wasn’t even his man.”

So it was just an ill-advised attempt at a steal?

“Yeah,” Mulligan said, rolling his eyes.

Palmer, a junior transfer from UCLA, sat slumped by his locker afterward.

“I was trying to make something happen,” he said softly. “He’d been penetrating all night and I was trying to stop him before he could get there.”

Irvine’s Mike Labat missed a leaning jumper with 2 seconds left and then Palmer got the long rebound and missed a 3-point shot at the buzzer.

“We didn’t lose the game at the end,” Mulligan said. “We lost it in the first half. We were awful at defending the ball and we shot horrible.”

The Anteaters (1-2) have already changed their defense and fiddled with their offense this season. This time, they out-rebounded USF, 43-25, and had a 20-5 advantage in offensive rebounds. They took 15 more shots. But their best shooters started poorly and stayed cold most of the game.

Senior guard Kevin Floyd made 4 of 13 shots. Palmer made 7 of 13 and led Irvine with 17 points. Labat missed his first 5 shots and finished 3 for 9. Jeff Herdman was 4 for 10.