Stanford Too Much for Irvine

The other team still feasted on layups off the press, and UC Irvine still lost, but Coach Bill Mulligan swears there was a glimmer of hope in the Anteaters’ 117-87 loss to Stanford Wednesday in Maples Pavilion.

“Bad things were happening, but we were one step away from stealing a pass and all those bad things wouldn’t happen,” Mulligan said.

One step, 30 points?

Stanford’s 117 points was the second-highest total in school history behind 129 in a victory over Yale in 1985.

Mulligan basically shrugs.

“You can play Stanford a lot of ways,” he said. “The margin would be the same, the score just wouldn’t be as high.”

Adam Keefe scored 25 points for Stanford (5-1). Kenny Ammann, a guard who made three of five three-pointers, added 17, and six players were in double figures.

Ricky Butler scored 27 points for Irvine and Dylan Rigdon added 18.

Irvine (3-6) did itself in by halftime, scoring only four points in the final seven minutes of the first half, and going scoreless for the final 4:53 to fall behind 56-37 at halftime.

Stanford’s lead was just 40-33 after Irvine’s Jeff Herdman hit a three-pointer with 7:08 left in the first half. But Irvine’s bad spell took over, and Stanford outscored the Anteaters, 16-4, the rest of the way.

Cornelius Banks made two free throws for Irvine with six minutes left, and at the 4:53 mark, Jeff Von Lutzow drove the lane for a layup for Irvine’s last basket of the half.

Irvine lost for the fourth time in a row, but Mulligan says he will not stray from a philosophy that emphasizes tempo and gets it through pressing and shooting quickly.

“I’m into a way of playing and if it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out,” Mulligan said.

Never mind that Stanford was charged with only one turnover in the first half, despite Irvine’s press.

“It’s a gambling press,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “In a press, you want to gamble up front, you don’t want to give up layups. . . . It’s not a great press.”

Montgomery was disappointed in his team’s defense. Stanford is among the national leaders in defensive field-goal percentage, holding opponents to 37.5%

Irvine, which came into the game shooting 43%, shot 49%, but took 61 shots compared with Stanford’s 72. The Cardinal shot 60%.

Mulligan compared Stanford favorably with UCLA and Utah, calling those teams the three best Irvine has played.