Irvine Pulls a Disappearing Act in Defeat : College basketball: Loyola Marymount runs and guns, erasing a 14-point deficit in the second half to win, 95-84.

It was almost two minutes into the second half and UC Irvine had Loyola Marymount down by 14 points. Worse than that, from the point of view of Loyola Marymount’s Terrell Lowery, the Lions hadn’t hit 40 yet.

“Man!” Lowery said in exasperation as he walked downcourt. “We can’t even get loose .”

Moments later, they were very loose, in classic Loyola style. The Lions lured Irvine into their deadly run-and-gun game and roared back to take a 95-84 victory in front of 1,589 Monday in Gersten Pavilion.

Lowery, who missed the Lions’ previous game with a sprained ankle, scored 37 points--26 in the second half. Brian McCloskey, a former Sunny Hills High School standout who played his freshman year at Irvine before transferring, had 19 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.

Irvine led by 10 at halftime and held a 50-36 lead in the first minutes of the second half. But then Lowery helped uncork a classic Loyola run, and the Lions outscored Irvine, 17-2 and 27-7, to take a 63-57 lead with 11:31 left.

Irvine (1-4), led by David Hollaway’s career-high 23 points off the bench, never reclaimed the lead.

The Anteaters’ 14-point lead seemed to disappear about as fast as Lowery makes his baseline move to the basket. It was down to two in three minutes, and gone entirely in five.

“I tried to explain there was no such thing as a half a victory,” said Irvine Coach Rod Baker, whose team lost for the fourth game in a row. “We were up 10, and we thought that would be enough to win the game. That cushion was only enough for three minutes.”

In a touch of irony, Irvine built its lead in the very way it lost it, partly by bowing to the Lions’ will to run. The Anteaters took their halftime lead behind a scoring burst by Hollaway, who had 19 off the bench in the Anteaters’ loss to USC on Dec. 7. In the second half, they scored the first four points as the back-and-forth strikes began.

Loyola Coach Jay Hillock, whose team improved to 5-3, has seen the same thing happen a hundred times.

“They got caught in it,” Hillock, said, smiling with satisfaction.

McCloskey, who said he enjoyed the matchup against old friends, said he had confidence.

“We knew we were all right,” McCloskey said. “If anyone can come back from 14 down, it’s this team.”

Baker was most dismayed by Irvine’s response.

“We have to meet their surge, and push it back. We just bent,” Baker said. “ We bent.

“We lost our composure in a lot of different situations. Yes, they turned it up, but we lost our composure.”

Irvine has vowed to play defense this season, but this time, the 10-second calls and the five-second calls were going against the Anteaters.

Irvine also collapsed against Loyola’s full-court pressure at times, turning the ball over repeatedly, even though the Anteaters had great success striking back with baseball passes that ended in length-of-the-court scoring plays.

“We thought we had it open long all night,” Baker said. “But fatigue played a part.”

Don May, Irvine’s center, said the team felt good at halftime, even though Baker told them that it was just a half, and that they needed to keep Loyola under 70 to feel confident of a victory.

“We didn’t do it,” May said. “Being up 10 at the half and losing, we have to realized this is our biggest loss.”

Baker, who was happy with many things in Irvine’s losses to Colorado, Houston and USC, agreed.

“There isn’t anybody in there who feels good. We had one. We lost one we should have gotten. We had our hands on it, but we didn’t squeeze hard enough to hang on.”

In the locker room, Gerald McDonald, the point guard, sat with his head hung low.

“A really bad feeling,” he said.

Anteater Notes

With six steals against UC Irvine, Terrell Lowery became Loyola Marymount’s career leader, passing Mike Yost’s record of 189. Lowery has 195. . . . Jeff Von Lutzow added 16 points for Irvine, and Khari Johnson had a career-high 12 off the bench. . . . The Anteaters’ trouble at the foul line is serious: Irvine made 16 of 27 in the game (59.3%) and 10 of 20 in the first half. . . . Loyola Marymount, which has made at least one three-point shot in every game since the rule was introduced, was only one of five against Irvine. . . . Next for Loyola Marymount: The Lions play UCLA at 7:30 Friday in Pauley Pavilion. Next for UC Irvine: The Anteaters play Loyola of Chicago at 5:30 p.m. PST Thursday in the Rosemont Horizon.