Irvine Ends Streak, Shocks Santa Barbara : College basketball: After a school-record 15 consecutive losses, Butler’s late free throws help Anteaters prevail, 98-97.

The buzzer sounded and Rod Palmer was half running, half skipping toward the UC Irvine bench Saturday night.

He never got there as he was engulfed by his teammates just as he hurled the ball into the rafters.

The Thunderdome, as UC Santa Barbara’s Campus Events Center is known, was oddly quiet, save for the Anteaters screaming and hugging at midcourt.

The Gauchos stood where they were when Gary Gray’s last-second shot was smothered by the Anteater defense.

Irvine defeated Santa Barbara, 98-97, ending a school-record losing streak that spanned 15 games, two months and a day.

A crowd of 5,395 saw Irvine (3-20 overall, 1-13 and still in last place in the Big West Conference) shoot a season-best 56.1% and ring up a season-high for points.

The crowd sent the decibel meter at one end of the arena soaring to 107 as Irvine’s Ricky Butler stood at the free-throw line with 20 seconds left and the Anteaters trailing, 97-96.

Irvine had just blown a 10-point lead in the last 2:24, but Butler had a chance to regain the lead for the Anteaters.

It didn’t look good. Butler came into the game shooting 59.3% at the line, but he swished the first one through for a 97-97 tie.

The second hit the back of the rim and also fell through.

“You don’t figure he’s going to hit both,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said.

Santa Barbara (17-7, 10-5) hurried the ball into the front court but did not take a timeout.

The Gauchos worked the ball to Eric McArthur, who had made 10 of 13 shots and had 21 points.

But he missed a 12-foot jump shot from the left side with Butler tightly guarding him. The ball bounced into the right-hand corner, where Idris Jones turned and missed a 15-foot jumper. Gray rebounded, and the buzzer went off as he tried a two-handed throw at the basket.

“What a relief after the buzzer went off,” said Palmer, a senior guard who had 11 points and nine assists. “Man, it feels so good. I kind of forgot what it’s like to win.”

Dylan Rigdon, a freshman guard, had 24 points for Irvine. He made six of eight three-pointers in hitting his career high. This after a dismal six-point performance in Thursday’s 102-63 loss at Cal State Long Beach.

“It was amazing,” Rigdon said. “It was my first big-time college game. The crowd’s into it, there’s 5,000 people screaming and it’s a one-point game.”

And, for once in a long time, a victory for Irvine.

Carrick DeHart had 30 points for Santa Barbara. The nation’s leading rebounder, McArthur had 13 and became the school’s career-leader with 837, breaking Doug Rex’s mark of 829 (1968-71).