Dismal Shooting Dooms Anteaters : Basketball: UCI leads at half, but hits only 10 of 36 in second half in 81-63 loss to Utah State.

There are games when one team never has a chance. Take UC Irvine’s loss to Utah State here last season, for example. Irvine lost by 33 points, in a game that was over in a flash, for all practical purposes.

This time, the Anteaters had a chance--and a one-point halftime lead--but Irvine’s struggling offense sputtered to a near-stall in the second half, and Utah State pulled away to defeat Irvine, 81-63, in a Big West Conference game Thursday in front of 6,430.

Afterward, Coach Rod Baker talked to his team.

“Here’s another we could have won,” he told them.

Here’s another they didn’t.

Irvine (3-9, 0-3), which lost for the fourth consecutive game, took a 34-33 lead at halftime after trailing by as many as seven in the first half. But the Anteater offense--one of fits and starts all season--scored only 10 points in the first 12 minutes 26 seconds of the second half, and that will pretty much do it every time.

Utah State (7-3, 2-0) put together a 12-0 run to go ahead, 47-38, after eight minutes of the second half, and led by 14 before Irvine began to come untracked.

“It’s just needing to put 40 minutes of basketball together,” said Irvine senior Elgin Rogers, who led Irvine with 17 points and seven rebounds. “We play good in spurts and we play bad in spurts.”

As an illustration of bad spurts--long ones--Irvine made only 10 of 36 shots (28%) in the second half. For the game, Irvine made 31.3% of its shots--not quite as poor as its 29.4% performance against UNLV. From the line Thursday, it was worse--Irvine made seven of 18 free throws in the second half--an astoundingly poor 38.9% from the line.

The Aggies, by contrast, scored 33 points from the line, missing only nine of 42 free throws in the game.

Irvine reached 57.6% from the line for the game only by having made 12 of 15 in the first half--80%. “Just an aberration,” Baker cracked.

At 39.5% from the field and 62.3% from the line, Irvine is on a pace to set school records for lowest field-goal percentage and lowest free-throw percentage.

What may be forgotten in all this is that these players are the remnants of an 11-19 team that lost its three leading scorers--seniors Jeff Herdman and Ricky Butler, and Dylan Rigdon, who transferred. Two players who would have had roles on this team, Cornelius Banks and Rick Swanwick, also left the team, Banks because of academic ineligibility and Swanwick to transfer to Rancho Santiago College.

“I don’t have a good sense of all that,” said Baker, who is in his first season at Irvine. “I don’t know what the 11-19 team was like. You lose Herdman and Butler anyway. I don’t know what Rigdon could have done, or Swanwick, or Cornelius Banks.”

Regardless, what might have been is past.

“I’m not gonna allow them to put their heads down,” Baker said.

The Anteaters hung in there in the first half Thursday on the strength of Rogers’ 12 points inside. But when Irvine tried to open up its perimeter game by persisting in running some of its other offenses, Rogers’ scoring dried up.

Utah State’s leading scorer, Kendall Youngblood, had nine points and 10 rebounds, but the Aggie guards ran all over Irvine in the second half, as Malloy Nesmith finished with 18 after having four at halftime, and Jay Goodman had 14. Carlito DaSilva, a power forward, had 14.

Offense aside, Baker wasn’t very pleased with Irvine’s defense either.

The Irvine players remain convinced they are better than their record, and say they have been in every game except losses to Houston and Loyola of Chicago.

“We’ve proven we’re talented enough to win every game we play,” senior Don May said. “We don’t fear anybody. I’m sure nobody fears us. That’s an advantage for us.”

Irvine Notes

Carlito DaSilva’s 14-point, seven-rebound performance for Utah State didn’t endear the power forward’s College of Southern Idaho coach to Rod Baker, who inquired about the 6-foot-8, 255-pound player last season but was given a poor review of his ability. DaSilva had 33 points and 16 rebounds against Oral Roberts in an earlier game. “I’m a lot madder now,” Baker said, looking at the stats. “You’d take that every night.”. . . . Despite its emphasis on defense, Irvine ranks ninth in the Big West in defensive field-goal percentage at 48.1% . . . Gabe Higa, a seldom-used reserve guard, remains out with a sprained ankle and was replaced on the trip by Khalid Channell . . . Next: At Fresno State at 7:30 Saturday.