UC Irvine Wins; It’s Not Even a Close Shave

The razors were on ice. Or at least they were in the plastic bag with the champagne, chilled and waiting for the first UC Irvine victory of 1992.

“He’s shaving right now,” said Irvine point guard Gerald McDonald, nodding toward the showers after his career-high 28 points helped Irvine break an 11-game losing streak Thursday with a 76-68 victory over Fresno State. “Everybody gave him a shaver.”

Sure enough, Coach Rod Baker was in the back with an audience of players who watched him remove the itchy scruff he has worn for 3 1/2 weeks since vowing not to shave until Irvine won.

“It’s been much too long,” Baker said after his revamped lineup avenged a 17-point loss to Fresno last month. Irvine hadn’t won since Dec. 28. When victory finally seemed assured with about 16 seconds left, a Bren Center crowd announced at 1,533 that had braved a wet night to attend the game gave the Anteaters (4-16, 1-10 in the Big West conference) a standing ovation.

“We figured it would be a rainy day in Southern California before we got another win,” Baker said.

After losing Saturday to San Jose State, a team that had won only once before all season, Baker announced this week that the players who had the best week in practice would start. Center Don May and leading scorer Elgin Rogers started the game on the bench, with guard Keith Stewart and center Khari Johnson in the starting lineup.

Stewart, a transfer from Marquette whose Irvine career has see-sawed between scintillating outside shooting and boneheaded turnovers, scored 16 points, including four of six three-pointers.

“He played with some confidence tonight,” Baker said.

Said Stewart: “I feel like if you’re a player, you don’t harp on things like that (turnovers). They happen to everybody.”

It was a balanced effort, and Irvine shot a season-high 62.2%.

But the player who carried Irvine on Thursday was the one whose start Baker says was never in doubt--McDonald.

“He was as good as he can be,” Baker said. “He made some shots, some tough ones.”

But he didn’t miss. McDonald, a player who was once shooting 28% from the field this season, made all seven shots he tried, many of them on darting drives after he out-quicked Fresno State’s quickest players, Carl Ray Harris and DeAndre Austin.

McDonald made two three-pointers and 12 of 17 free throws. He also had five steals, including a spate of them at the beginning of the second half, when he scored 10 consecutive Anteater points and put Irvine ahead, 46-42.

The lead would grow to as many as 11 when Stewart hit a three-pointer with about 11 minutes left.

“An 11-point lead just means it could get to three at anytime,” said Baker, whose team has blown lead after lead this season. “It did.”

Fresno State (14-8, 5-5) cut the lead to 70-67 with 2:12 left on a three-pointer by Wilbert Hooker, and it was at three again with 1:21 left.

A few in the crowd started chanting, “I think we can, I think we can.”

This time, Irvine did, even after McDonald was called for a five-second violation with 1:02 left. On the next possession, Fresno State’s Tod Bernard missed a shot from the baseline, one of his favorite spots, and Austin missed a second shot.

“We ran into a team that had hit bottom and now was on its way up,” Fresno State Coach Gary Colson said.

Irvine made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on, with Jeff Von Lutzow getting a big rebound with 26 seconds left and making both free throws for a 75-68 lead.