UC Irvine Finds the Road as Gloomy as Home, 67-57

UC Irvine took its shot-in-the dark act on the road Sunday.

And the cold-shooting Anteaters fared no better than they have at home, losing to Fresno State, 67-57, before 9,796 at Selland Arena.

The Anteaters came into the game shooting 43% from the field and hadn’t been above 40% in the past three games. But just when it seems the Anteaters can’t possibly shoot more poorly, they do.

Irvine (2-10 overall, 0-3 in Big West Conference play) made 16 of 51 shots from the field for a season-low 31.4%. The Anteaters were six of 22 (27.3%) in the first half.

By contrast, Fresno (6-6, 1-2) shot 51.2%, including 55.6% from three-point range.

And on a night when Irvine seemed to play well enough otherwise, the Anteaters suffered their fifth consecutive loss.

“You can’t win the way we’re shooting,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “Their defense made it tough for us to get into our offense.”

Despite missing all manner of shots--layups, short jump shots and three-pointers to name a few--Irvine had a good chance to win.

The Anteaters trailed by 31-26 at halftime, then took the lead 4:05 into the second half.

“We were in big trouble tonight, there’s no question about that,” Fresno Coach Ron Adams said.

Irvine couldn’t pull away either, and when the Bulldogs’ Tod Bernard made a jumper from barely inside the three-point line with 7:53 left, Fresno had tied the score, 47-47.

Then it all fell apart for the Anteaters.

“I thought we all got tired at the same time,” Mulligan said.

A 14-4 run by the Bulldogs, in which Bernard had seven of his 20 points, put the game out of reach. His biggest basket was a 22-foot three-pointer that swished through, pushing the Fresno lead to 55-50.

Jeff Herdman led Irvine with 20 points, but made only five of 18 shoots. Ricky Butler, who made five of eight shots and was the only Irvine player to shoot better than 50%, added 14.

“We’re not playing well right now,” Mulligan said. “It’s just a tough year.”