Big West Roundup : UC Irvine Blocks Fresno’s Way in Final Minutes, 64-61

UC Irvine turned the tables on defensive-minded Fresno State Thursday night and came away with a 64-61 Big West victory before a crowd of 2,946 at Irvine.

Most of the defense by Irvine (5-9 overall, 2-3 in the conference) came in the final minutes of play, including 3 consecutive blocked shots in the last 3 minutes.

With 3:15 left, guard Rod Palmer made a diving save of a loose ball and flipped it back off the foot of Bulldog Jervis Cole before it ricocheted out of bounds.

On Fresno’s next possession, Irvine’s Mike Doktorczyk blocked a shot by Pat Riddlesprigger. The Ricky Butler swatted away a shot by Bijou Baly. And then a flying Palmer came from behind to block Baly’s layup.

Doktorczyk made 4 of 5 free throws in the final 43 seconds finish off Fresno State (8-7, 3-3).

“I thought they played good defense, especially in the second half,” Fresno Coach Ron Adams said. “They worked hard and their pressure hurt us. Sometimes, teams figure they’re going to be in a defensive contest when they play us and it works against us.”

It certainly didn’t appear that way in the opening minutes when the Anteaters came down with another case of opening-minutes jitters. Fresno jumped to a 22-9 lead with 9:01 remaining in the first half, but Irvine, rallied on the 3-point shooting of Palmer and trailed, 32-28, at halftime.

Palmer, a junior transfer from UCLA, scored 20 points.

Floyd drew the assignment of guarding Cole, the Bulldog’s top scorer, but he didn’t do much stopping. Cole had 11 points at halftime after making 5 of 8 shots. Mike Labat took over after intermission and Cole finished with 15.