Siena’s Brown Turns Irvine Upside Down : College basketball: Butler’s career-high 30 points aren’t enough as Anteaters lose, 119-108, in Great Alaska Shootout.

They call him Showbiz, and there’s no business like trying to stop him.

Marc Brown is Siena’s extraordinary point guard, a slight senior who danced and slithered his way to a triple-double in a 119-108 victory over UC Irvine Sunday.

His performance--a career-high tying 32 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists for the first triple-double of his career, outshined that of Irvine center Ricky Butler, who scored a career-high 30 points and had eight rebounds despite playing only 22 minutes because of foul trouble.

“ That is a good player,” Butler said, half an hour or so after one play on which he found himself in a momentary mismatch, trying to guard Brown in the Anteaters’ trapping defense. It was not a long confrontation.

“Really good,” Butler said. “I like his game.”

Siena’s victory in front of 2,300 in Sullivan Arena gave the Saints fourth place in the Great Alaska Shootout. Irvine finished sixth.

Siena (2-1) is best known for its upset of Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament two seasons ago, but for now, just think of them as the latest team to thrive on Irvine’s shooting-crazed offense.

They used to call this run-and-gun, before it reached a form of perfection last year at Loyola Marymount. Now Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan is trying to adapt it to revive his team from a 5-23 season: Call this the Run-and-Mulligan.

It didn’t work well enough to win Sunday, in part because Irvine fell behind by 13 points by halftime after trying 16 three-pointers and making only two. They made eight of 32 for the game, with point guard Gerald McDonald making three of them.

“People told me that was going to happen some nights,” Mulligan said after watching his team shoot 39%. “It seemed like there was a lid on it. We didn’t shoot well the whole tournament.”

Another reason it didn’t work was because Siena picked apart the Irvine press, getting the ball to Brown in the middle of the press instead of allowing him to be trapped on the sidelines on the first pass. The result was a flurry of three-on-two and two-on-one breaks that helped Siena take its halftime lead.

And one final reason Irvine lost? Siena is a good team--one that led 18th-ranked Virginia for most of a game Friday before losing by three points.

The Anteaters rallied late behind Butler’s 22 second-half points. He capitalized on Siena’s concern about the three-pointer and began to find his touch inside.

Irvine trailed by 17 with eight minutes left. But Butler dunked off a terrific one-handed pass from David Hollaway, and completed a three-point play after picking up a loose ball, cutting the lead to 93-81.

With 4:47 left, Butler completed another three-point play, and the lead was 99-90.

Irvine trailed by only eight with 2:36 left, but Brown knocked down a three-point basket that took the bite out of the comeback.

Irvine (1-2) did not take the loss to heart, despite the Saints’ relative obscurity.

“I’m encouraged,” Mulligan said. “They’re a good team. They played well. We just got beat.”

They got beat despite Butler’s best game of the season. He was still disappointed in his shooting--he made 12 of 22--but like Mulligan, felt good about the game.

“I think we made a great comeback,” Butler said. “We spotted ‘em at the beginning of the game. I’m encouraged. We came here and played three really good teams, and we got a win against Texas Tech. I don’t know why I started slow. This game is going to be my year. This is the way I’m going to be.”

Another promising aspect of the game was excellent play off the bench, for the third time in three games.

This time, sophomore forward Craig Marshall was the standout, scoring 17 points, 12 in the first half.