UC Irvine’s Downward Spiral Continues in 70-58 Loss to Pacific

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

Irvine, streaking straight down to the depths of the Big West Conference standings, lost to Pacific, one of the conference’s rapidly rising teams, 70-58.

It was Pacific’s second big victory in as many games. Sunday, the Tigers defeated UC Santa Barbara, 75-53.

And 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 9-5 overall record, a far cry from the 7-21, 5-24 and 10-17 marks the Tigers have posted the past three seasons. Pacific is 2-3 in the Big West.

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

The loss was Irvine’s sixth in a row. The school record of 11 set during the 1979-80 season is safe for the moment. But the Anteaters’ schedule becomes more difficult, starting with Cal State Long Beach Thursday night.

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

Poor shooting was again the most noteworthy problem for the Anteaters.

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

Ricky Butler had 14 points to lead Irvine, but five of his 11 shots were missed layups.

“This could have been the night he got 28 like he did against San Diego State,” Mulligan said of Butler, who had a career high in the Anteaters’ last victory Dec. 16.

Justin Anderson added 12 points but was four of 10 from the field. Don May had 11 off the bench and was one of the few bright spots, according to Mulligan.

“It looked to me like we didn’t have five guys who were ready to play,” Mulligan said. “(Craig) Marshall, May, (Rod) Palmer and Anderson were the only ones ready to play. Anderson played pretty well tonight.”

Don Lyttle had 25 points and 15 rebounds and Dell Demps had 15 points to lead Pacific.

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

Well, against Pacific it went like this:

Irvine--starting slowly as has become its method of operation--fell behind, 20-4, before the game was 10 minutes old.

“I thought, ‘We just gotta bury them right now,’ ” Lyttle said. “We had to keep the pressure on.”

The Anteaters cut the lead to 26-19 on a three-pointer by Anderson with 6:27 left in the half. But a short jumper by Anthony Woods and a three-pointer by Lyttle kept the Tigers in control.

By halftime, Pacific led, 36-24.

In the second half, the Tigers’ lead swelled to 15, the last time at 57-42 after a Lyttle basket with 8:40 left.

But Irvine cut it to 64-58 on a three-pointer by Palmer with 1:17 left.

After a steal and a dunk by Jeff Von Lutzow 10 seconds later, Irvine was within striking distance.

But Pacific went six for six from the free-throw line and Irvine went scoreless in the final minute.

Afterward, Mulligan could only shake his head and bemoan his team’s shooting.

“I’ll tell ya something,” he said. “Pacific doesn’t play a lot of defense. We had a lot of easy shots. I think if we just made our layins we would be OK.”

Mulligan said he thinks the Anteaters have become used to losing.

“It gets to the point where you lose and you think you’re supposed to lose,” he said.

Anteater Notes

Irvine’s shooting percentages for the past four games: Pacific 36.1, Fresno State 31.4, the season low, San Jose State 36.9 and Utah State 39.

Jeff Herdman, who shot 51.2% from three-point range last season, came into the game shooting 37.5% overall and 37.7 from three-point range. He was three of 11 overall and one of five on threes for seven points against Pacific. “I wish (Rod) Palmer would starting knocking it down (making his shots) because he’s playing so hard right now,” Coach Bill Mulligan said. Palmer had six points on two-of-eight shooting.