Anteaters Suffer a Thorough Pounding : UC Irvine: Utah State dominates all phases of the game in a 111-88 Big West Conference victory.

The lead was 12 points after five minutes, and 19 after little more than 10. It was 22 by halftime, and 34 at its largest.

And it belonged to UC Irvine only once, at 2-0.

The Anteaters thought Wednesday might be their night to surpass their victory total for all last season, but Utah State turned around and handed them a 111-88 loss in front of 6,314 in the Spectrum.

This was not Stanford, which beat Irvine by 30. This was Utah State, a team that entered the game in such disarray that Coach Kohn Smith stuck two freshmen in the lineup.

“They just blew us away,” said Irvine center Ricky Butler, who was battling a cold and scored only nine points.

There was agreement all around.

“We just didn’t show up,” said Jeff Herdman, who scored 12 points, making four of 10 three-point shots.

And this, from Coach Bill Mulligan after watching his team score 28 points in the first half while being outrebounded by 10 in just 20 minutes: “The first half was the worst half I can remember us playing as long as I’ve been coaching.”.

How bad was it?

Well . . . Utah State’s Kendall Youngblood had a double-double, 13 points and 10 rebounds-- at halftime .

He finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, second in scoring to Jay Goodman, a sophomore guard who looks like Scott Brooks and might play better. Goodman had 21 points, including four three-pointers, and added eight assists.

Yes, it was a great night to be an Aggie. Before Wednesday, Utah State (4-6) was shooting 36% at home. Against Irvine (5-8), the Aggies shot 54%.

“The team finally figured out you don’t get points for hitting the rim,” Smith said.

Smith benched both starting forwards, seniors Rich Jardine and Randy Funk, in favor of Bryon Ruffner and Eric Franson.

Ruffner might have worked his way into the lineup for good, scoring 16 points and pulling down seven rebounds in 22 minutes. When he left the game, it was to an ovation. Franson added eight points.

It was a night for freshmen, and for benchwarmers. Take the case of Roger Daley, averaging 0.7 points and 0.3 rebounds. His moment of glory came in the second half, when Goodman lofted a perfect alley-oop pass, and Daley slammed it home for a 99-67 lead.

He might have had a second, but for Goodman’s next alley-oop pass, which a stunned Daley left untouched as it rattled into the basket. Three-pointer. Goodman just turned away, ducked his head and gave the crowd a bashful smile.

The Anteaters, who were led in scoring by Dylan Rigdon’s 14 points, gave up 24 layups. They were not so much off the press, at least in the early going; Utah State simply beat them in transition, particularly when there was no time to set up a press.

“Utah State did that to us last year in the Bren Center,” Mulligan said. “They killed us in transition. Killed us.”

As poorly as Irvine played, Butler and Herdman say they still believe in this team.

“I thought our last three practices were really good,” Herdman said. “It happens. It’s one game, and it’s already behind us. We still feel real good about ourselves. We’re not going to get down.”

Mulligan is not so rosy, but says he is not ready to pull a move like Smith did and start benchwarmers.

“I’d like to get our guys squared away,” he said. “We’ve got to come back. We’ve got to come back and play better.”

Irvine, playing the third game of a 10-day road trip that ends Friday at San Jose State, gets its next chance soon enough.

“I think they were tired,” Smith said. “They missed a lot of shots. They’ve been on the road. We were fortunate to catch them on a night like this.”

Irvine just hopes there are many more of them.

Anteater Notes

Jeff Herdman, the Anteaters’ main three-point threat this season, already has attempted more three-pointers than he did all last season. He has made 49 of 111, surpassing last season’s marks of 34 of 101. . . . Ricky Butler is among the leaders in four categories in the most recent Big West Conference statistics. He is sixth in scoring (18.7), fifth in rebounding (8.0), fourth in field-goal percentage (57.7) and third in blocked shots (1.6).