Irvine Tries New Tack, and It Works

UC Irvine, a team that scored 101 points in its opener a year ago and lost, tried it the other way Saturday night in its first game under Coach Rod Baker, and came away with a 79-64 victory over San Diego State in front of 2,169 in the Bren Center.

Elgin Rogers scored 21 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, Craig Marshall scored 17 and a still-ill Jeff Von Lutzow added 15 for the Anteaters, who won a season-opening game for the first time since 1987.

But it was defense that made the difference, as the Anteaters turned a 32-21 halftime deficit into a lead of as many as 18 in the second half.

“I tell you what, we guarded a little bit,” Baker said. “All we talk about is how we want to break people down and wear them out and get to where they don’t want any more. We got San Diego State to where they bent over and made it a little easier.”

Last year--an 11-19 season in the final year under Bill Mulligan--opened with a 134-101 loss to UCLA in the Great Alaska Shootout.

Saturday’s victory wasn’t a thing of beauty, as San Diego State fell to 0-3 and the teams combined to commit 51 fouls. Irvine won the battle of field-goal percentage by shooting only 44% to San Diego State’s 42%. Surprisingly, the smaller but more physical Irvine team also won the rebounding battle, 40-29.

Von Lutzow, who practiced only sparingly this week because of flu and did not start, scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.

“I never thought I’d like playing defense so much,” Von Lutzow said. “But it creates everything for ourselves, instead of creating everything for the other team.”

San Diego State was led by Courtie Miller, who scored 22 points on nine-of-13 shooting.

“We’re just not a very good team right now,” Aztec Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “By that I mean the approach isn’t there. We have to distribute the ball better and play a lot more efficiently.”