Anteaters Hit Another Low in 102-63 Loss at Long Beach

The most feared team in the Big West Conference hit the court in Cal State Long Beach’s cramped campus gymnasium Thursday night.

UC Irvine, which had lost 14 in a row coming into the game, is beginning to be taken very seriously by conference coaches. After all, no one wants to be the team that gains the dubious distinction of losing to the Anteaters.

No such worries for Long Beach, which buried Irvine under an avalanche of dunks, acrobatic moves and long-range jump shots in a 102-63 victory in front of 1,649.

Most of the 49ers’ scoring rampage was fueled by an aggressive full-court press.

Even by Irvine standards, this was a blowout of major proportions.

It was the worst loss for Anteater Coach Bill Mulligan in his 10 seasons at Irvine, eclipsing a 36-point loss at Nevada Las Vegas this season.

The Anteaters’ 15th consecutive loss tied the school record of 20 losses in a season, set in 1979-80, a year before Mulligan became coach. Irvine is 2-20 overall, 0-13 in conference.

And it also was the largest margin of victory for the 49ers in the 25-year history of the series.

Irvine hasn’t won since Dec. 16. Long Beach, which had lost four of its past six conference games is 15-7, 7-6.

It was close for 2 minutes and 4 seconds. A layup by the 49ers’ Tyrone Mitchell gave Long Beach the lead for good, 6-5, at that point.

A 17-0 run by the 49ers during the next 5:29 broke the game open. By halftime, the lead was 39-21.

The second half began in agonizing fashion for the Anteaters.

Rudy Harvey took a lob pass from Bobby Sears for a thunderous dunk to cap a 20-5 run by Long Beach that pushed the lead to 59-26 with 14:59 left.

Later, Harvey would return the favor, hitting Sears with a perfect no-look bounce pass for a back-door layup. It was 66-34 at that point and the only drama left was whether the 49ers would hit 100 points, earning the fans a free bag of french fries at a local fast-food restaurant.

Darrell Faulkner’s jumper from the corner with 22 seconds left did the trick, producing the largest ovation of the night.

“I’d like to apologize for a terrible performance,” Mulligan said. “I can’t explain it. We played a great game against New Mexico State (a 79-75 loss last Thursday at Las Cruces) and against a press, too, and almost pulled it out.”

Against Long Beach, the Anteaters made just five of 21 from the field (23.5%) and had 15 turnovers in the first half, and a season-high 28 for the game. And that had nearly everything to do with the wide margin.

“We haven’t had many games like we had tonight,” 49er Coach Joe Harrington said. “We played like we were angry. We haven’t done that in a long, long time.”

Harvey had 16 points, Faulkner 14 and Sears and Kevin Cutler 12 each for Long Beach. All 12 players who suited up for the 49ers scored.

Jeff Von Lutzow had 12 to lead Irvine.

“Two weeks from next Wednesday is going to be a very happy day for me,” Mulligan said.

And after a pause, he added, “It’s the first day of the Big West tournament.”

And the end of a very long season.

Anteater Notes

Irvine rallied to shoot 50% in the second half for 39.2% for the game, the 10th time the Anteaters have shot less than 40%. The Anteaters have been above 50% just twice. . . . Irvine plays at third-place UC Santa Barbara Saturday.