Long Beach Survives Cold to Beat UC Irvine

A basketball team came into UC Irvine’s Bren Center Thursday night looking like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

For once this season, it wasn’t UC Irvine missing all those shots. Cal State Long Beach survived a dreadful, 31.4% shooting night to limp past Irvine, 49-48, before 3,023.

For 40 minutes, the teams matched misguided shots and misdirected passes in a lackluster Big West Conference game.

For Irvine, shooting 41.7% from the field and committing 17 turnovers a game is standard operating procedure. But not for Long Beach.

But Tyrone Mitchell made the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds left and the 49ers eked out their 10th victory in 12 games. Long Beach is 3-1 in conference play.

Mitchell, who had 10 points, missed the second shot, the ball landing in the hands of Irvine’s Don May.

May got the ball to guard Rod Palmer, who was cut off by 49ers at midcourt. He passed to center Ricky Butler, whose hurried three-point try glanced off the rim at the buzzer.

“I was really confident on the first shot,” said Mitchell, a 47% free-throw shooter. “I’m trying to learn to focus more.”

Irvine, which lost its seventh consecutive game, rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to tie the score, 41-41, with 4:25 left.

A three-point play (an alley-oop and a free throw) by Rudy Harvey and two free throws by Kevin Cutler pushed the 49ers’ lead to 46-41 with 2:35 left.

Irvine came back again, however, and when Justin Anderson hit a three-pointer with 1:19 left, the Anteaters trailed, 48-46. Cutler was called for traveling at the other end, giving Irvine the ball with a minute left.

The Anteaters (2-12, 0-5) worked it to Jeff Herdman, who drove the baseline and was fouled with 27 seconds left. Herdman made both for a 48-48 tie.

Mitchell brought the ball upcourt, but when he started to make his drive, Palmer reached in and nearly stripped the ball away. But it bounced right back to Mitchell, who continued to drive to the basket. Herdman reached in and fouled him.

“I told Palmer not to foul him,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “Then I changed my mind, but he couldn’t hear me because of the crowd. I wanted to go after (Mitchell) because he shoots only (47%).”

True to form, though, the Anteaters’ plans went awry.

Anderson and Butler had 12 points each to lead Irvine, which shot 40% from the field and had 21 turnovers.

“A lot of missed layins,” Mulligan said. “Missed jumpers aren’t our bag, it’s missed layins.”

Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington wasn’t exactly raving about the 49ers’ shooting, either.

“I’ve never coached a team that’s missed so many shots,” Harrington said. “We kept them in the game with our lack of offense.”

Indeed, Irvine dictated the pace, handling the 49ers’ aggressive full-court press and harassing man-to-man defense easily. The Anteaters even shot well late in the game. Anderson was four for six on three-pointers.

“(The pace) wouldn’t have been a factor if we would have made our shots,” Harrington said. “We didn’t put them away.”

Long Beach extended a 22-17 halftime lead to 32-19, 4:55 into the second half. But, as has become their custom, the Anteaters began chipping away.

Butler scored from inside; Anderson made a three-pointer, then Butler blew around 49er center Mike Masucci for two more and Irvine had tied it, 41-41.

“We got a lead but were not building on it,” Mitchell said. “If we could have built the lead, that would have made them change the pace.”