Herdman, Mulligan Get Well at Fresno State With 82-79 Victory

Two days ago, Jeff Herdman was violently ill with intestinal flu.

Saturday night, he felt much better.

Nine years ago, Bill Mulligan referred to Fresno State’s deliberate style of play as “vomit basketball” and the UC Irvine coach has left this town feeling a little sick ever since.

Saturday night, he felt much, much better.

Herdman, a sophomore sharpshooter from Mission Viejo, scored a career-high 29 points and UC Irvine beat Fresno State for the first time ever at Selland Arena, rallying for an 82-79 Big West Conference victory in front of 10,159.

Herdman, who leads the nation in three-point field goal percentage, made 10 of 13 shots from the floor--including five of eight from three-point range--but it was his five-foot bank shot with 6 seconds left in the game that propelled the Anteaters to the victory . . . not to mention making Mulligan’s day.

“This is not a big deal for me, you know that,” Mulligan deadpanned. “It was just another game.”

Even freshman Brian McCloskey, who didn’t play in the game, knew better. He smuggled the game ball into the locker room and presented it to Mulligan, who is now overjoyed to be 1-8 in Selland Arena, home of the fanatically faithful Red Wave. Irvine is 1-11 in the facility.

“All we ever heard is how Coach is 0 for life in this place,” senior point guard Kevin Floyd said. “When we came here to practice he told us that if he got tense and started yelling, not to take it personal because this place makes him a little crazy.”

Irvine (11-12 overall, 8-6 in the Big West) trailed by seven (43-36) at halftime, but the Anteaters rallied and went ahead, 80-77, when Floyd reverse-pivoted and buried a fallaway 15-foot jumper with 1:33 left.

Herdman had a chance to put the game away, but missed the front end of a one-and-one situation with 33 seconds remaining and Mulligan admitted that, at that point, he “felt it slipping away.”

Speaking of slips . . .

“As soon as I stepped to the line, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get this one for Coach Mulligan,’ ” Herdman said. “Then the ball slipped off the side of my hand and I knew I’d missed it.

“I felt much better tonight, a little weak but fine really, and I wanted to shoot every time I got the ball. I felt like I couldn’t miss.”

The Anteaters shot 56% from the floor, no small feat considering that Fresno State (12-11, 7-7) is ranked 13th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 42% going into Saturday night’s game.

The Bulldogs held a whopping 15-5 rebounding advantage at the intermission, but the Anteaters held their own on the boards in the second half (19-18). When Fresno center Derrick Barden fouled out with 12:32 left in the game, the Bulldogs no longer were dominant underneath.

“We had a lot of people strung out in the second half and didn’t rebound very well,” Fresno Coach Ron Adams said. “I think that was a really critical factor.

“And to beat Irvine, you have to control their offense and score at a consistent rate yourself. You have to get up on their shooters and disrupt their rhythm. That certainly wasn’t the case with Herdman. They were relaxed on offense and we were rushing things.”

Guards Floyd and Rod Palmer were a combined nine of 18 from the field and each scored 11 points. Ricky Butler made six of 10 shots and scored 12. And center Mike Doktorczyk, who had a game-high eight rebounds, made 10 of 11 free throws and had 17 points.

The hot shooting of Herdman and Co. was a key to this victory, no doubt, but the Anteaters’ defense (surprise, surprise) was also an important factor.

The Bulldogs opened the game in a three-guard offense, but it was more like a one-forward offense in the early going. Fresno forward Jervis Cole scored 10 of the Bulldogs’ first 11 points.

But a quartet of Anteaters--Floyd, brothers Mike and Rob Doktorczyk and Mike Labat--combined to shut him down after that.

Cole, who finished with a team-high 20 points but made just nine of 24 field goal attempts, missed eight consecutive shots in a 13-minute stretch of the second half as Irvine rallied.

Fresno put together a 12-3 run after Irvine had grabbed a 54-52 lead and the Bulldogs led, 64-57, with 10:24 to play. But the Anteaters battled back to within one (75-74) when Herdman nailed a 21-footer with 4:11 remaining.

“After Herdman made the little jumper at the end to put us up by three, I was scared to death somebody was going to hit one,” Mulligan said. “It’s hard as hell to get a win here.”

Cole did get off one last shot, a three-point attempt at the buzzer, but he had to throw it up over the outstretched arms of 6-foot-9 Mike Doktorczyk and it wasn’t close.

“OK, I had tears in my eyes,” Mulligan finally admitted. “But, hell, I cry every time we win one.”