UC Irvine Beats Bradley, 94-85, Improves to 3-2

Complain, if you will, that UC Irvine’s shooting guard can hardly make a shot, and that its point guard has few assists.

The complaints are being hushed for the moment at Irvine, where, despite such oddities, the Anteaters won their own Freedom Bowl Classic Saturday by defeating Bradley, 94-85, in the Bren Center.

With that, the Anteaters have a two-game winning streak for the first time since February of 1989. And with a 3-2 record, they are above .500 for the first time since March of 1988.

Irvine was 5-23 last season, the worst in school history.

The Anteaters trailed, 36-33, at halftime but went ahead early in the second half. They couldn’t pull away, however, until the final eight minutes, on the passing of Dylan Rigdon, the shooting guard, and the shooting of Gerald McDonald, the point guard.

McDonald had 21 points, leading all scorers except Bradley’s Curtis Stuckey, who had 29.

One continuing source of bewilderment to Irvine is the shooting of Rigdon, who as a freshman last year averaged 17 points over the final nine games.

After four games this season, Rigdon was averaging only 9.5 points. Stunningly, he had only eight field goals and was shooting 26% from the field.

He is the player Irvine would most like to see shoot. But as he has struggled--and against the backdrop of Coach Bill Mulligan’s cries of “Shoot! Shoot!”--Rigdon has led the team in a most unlikely category: assists.

He entered the game against Bradley with 17, averaging four a game. By contrast, the Anteaters’ point guard, McDonald, entered the game with only nine assists.

Rigdon did not have a field goal in the first 35 minutes, but the first, when it came, was big one--a three-pointer that gave Irvine a nine-point lead with four minutes left.