Newey’s Early Bombing Helps Utah St. Sink UC Irvine, 104-71

UC Irvine’s basketball team made the 2-hour flight from San Jose to Salt Lake City Sunday and then took a 2-hour bus trip up to Logan, home of Utah State University.

Seems like a long trip for a 5-minute game.

Utah State’s Reid Newey made 4 consecutive 3-pointers in the first 5:13 of play Monday night, giving the Aggies a 19-6 lead, and Irvine never got closer than 10 points before losing, 104-71, in front of a delighted-but-bored 9,948 at the Spectrum.

It was Aggie Disney Family Night at the Spectrum--both Mickey Mouse and Goofy were on hand for a special halftime show--and the Anteaters couldn’t have put on a more Mickey Mouse performance if they were all wearing Goofy’s oversized shoes.

Irvine is starting the Big West Conference season in much the same way it begins most games: by digging itself into a nice deep hole. The Anteaters are 1-3 in conference action and 4-9 overall. Utah State, after stumbling to a 1-6 start, has recovered to post a 4-2 Big West mark and a 6-9 overall record.

The Aggies have won 4 of their last 5 games, but none of them were in the bag this quickly. Newey, who finished with a school-record 7 3-pointers and a game-high 26 points, buried the 4 bombs, buoyed his teammates and buried the Anteaters in the process.

This one was mostly Aggie showtime after that.

“Yeah, we got it going pretty good,” said Newey, who wanted to talk about his underhand alley-oop pass to Kendall Youngblood for a dunk more than his outside shooting.

“Sometimes they don’t guard you when you get that far out and you have to take what they give you. It’s really fun when you get way ahead like that and can spread it out because, well, you just have fun.”

The Anteaters could have had more fun here if they had stayed outside and had a snowball fight in their underwear.

“We didn’t shoot well, from the field or at the (free-throw) line,” said Irvine’s Kevin Floyd, who picked up 3 quick fouls and was held to a season-low 7 points. “We didn’t rebound or block out. We weren’t aggressive. We were flat.”

That about sums it up. Irvine shot 38% from the floor and Utah State shot 51%. And the Aggies outrebounded the Anteaters, 47-32. At halftime, Irvine had made just 6 of 13 layups and only 4 of 17 non-layups. Utah State was shooting 57% from the floor at the intermission and led, 49-30.

Still, the most important statistic of the night remained Newey’s game-opening, 4-for-4, long-range barrage.

Irvine forward Ricky Butler, who scored a career-high 12 points, thought Newey’s early 3-pointers were even more devastating because 3 of them came from at least a yard beyond the 3-point stripe and the other was about a 28-footer.

“He shot those things from Never-Never Land,” Butler said, shaking his head in awe. “After that, his confidence was way up and their whole team’s confidence was way up because he’s their leader.”

The last time these teams met was the conference tournament championship game last year and the Aggies won that one, too, 86-79. Neither was supposed to be in that game. The Anteaters upset Nevada Las Vegas and Utah State beat UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals.

Both teams were supposed to have better records when they met Monday night. The Aggies, hot off an upset of previously unbeaten Santa Barbara here Saturday night, seem to have righted the ship and are starting to live up to preseason expectations.

“A lot of people doubted if we were any good after our bad start,” Newey said, “but I knew we would build steadily.”

The Anteaters, coming off a victory over San Jose State Saturday night that Floyd called “an ugly win,” seem to be taking on water faster than they can bail.

“What do you guys suggest I do?” Mulligan asked reporters after leaving the locker room. “Why won’t we block out? Why won’t we go inside? Why are we so impatient? Why are we so selfish?

“We seemed to have those things straightened out against San Jose. . . . now this. I mean, I’m not taking anything away from Utah State, they played magnificently. Newey pounds the 4 3-pointers out of the chute and they’re off.”

First-year Coach Kohn Smith said the game was the Aggies’ “best night offensively” and credited Youngblood, who scored a career-high 18 points, for his defensive play guarding Floyd.

“Of course,” he said, “when you get a shooting performance like that from Newey, it helps.”

Immeasurably. Youngblood came into the game shooting 49% from the field. He was 8 of 10 Monday night. Darrel White was shooting 47%. He was 7 of 11.

It was that kind of night for the Aggies.

The Anteaters, meanwhile, get to wake up today and face another bus trip and plane flight and contemplate Thursday night’s game against Fresno State, a team that beat the Aggies in Logan 2 weeks ago.