Pacific Has No Trouble Keeping UC Irvine on Decline

UC Irvine and the University of the Pacific, two teams traveling on different escalators, met Tuesday night.

Irvine, streaking to the depths of the Big West Conference standings, lost to one of the conference’s most improved teams, 70-58. It was Pacific’s first victory over Irvine since Jan. 17, 1980, a span of 20 games.

The Tigers have had three coaches, two winning seasons and a decade full of woeful play since then.

The victory gives Pacific a 9-5 record, 2-3 in Big West play, a far cry from the 7-21, 5-24 and 10-17 marks the Tigers have had the past three seasons.

Irvine, setting new lows for futility seemingly at every turn, drops to 2-11, 0-4, the worst record in the 25-year history of Anteater basketball.

It also was Irvine’s sixth consecutive loss.

“What am I going to say?” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said after losing to Pacific for the first time in his 10 seasons. “A lot of things have happened to this (Irvine) team.”

The Anteaters shot 36.1% from the field, the fourth consecutive game they have shot worse than 40%.

Ricky Butler had 14 points to lead Irvine, but missed five layups out of the 11 shots he took. Justin Anderson added 12 but was four of 10 from the field. Don May had a career-high 11 off the bench and was one of the few bright spots, according to Mulligan.

“You get to the point where you say, ‘Holy cow, how is this happening?’ ” Mulligan said.