Irvine Has Little Trouble Beating San Jose State’s Makeshift Team

UC Irvine’s basketball team had to play Thursday night without senior center Mike Doktorczyk, the team’s leading scorer in Big West action, who is nursing a thigh injury.

Of course, San Jose State had to play without its 10 best players.

The result was a 91-69 Big West Conference victory for Irvine--the Anteaters’ only real laugher this season--in front of 2,279 in the Bren Center.

Irvine, which has won three consecutive games, is 9-11 overall and 6-5 in conference play. The Spartans, who have lost five in a row since 10 scholarship players quit the team after demanding Coach Bill Berry be fired, fell to 5-16 and 1-11.

Actually, Berry’s collection of athletes from other sports and walk-ons made the mistake of losing by just four points (58-54) to Cal State Long Beach Saturday night and that was enough to convince the Anteaters they could lose this game.

All five Anteater starters scored in double figures. Sophomore power forward Ricky Butler, who had his third consecutive 20-point-plus performance, led the way with 23 points and 7 rebounds. Palmer, who made all six three-pointers he attempted, finished with 20 points.