Anteaters Unable to Find Stride in Loss : Basketball: Down 19 points at halftime, they lose, 99-71, to New Mexico State.

The losses piled up this season, but UC Irvine always took comfort in the close games and the little steps of progress during Rod Baker’s first year as coach. The idea all along, Baker said, has been to build for the Big West Conference tournament, and to hope to be a good team by then.

But Saturday night--against a team that beat them by only four points in January--the Anteaters fell behind by 19 points at halftime during a 99-71 loss to New Mexico State in front of 9,231 in the Pan American Center.

“We got whupped pretty good,” Baker said. “That’s a very good team, very athletic, very physical. They just kind of pushed us all over the floor.

“This is not a game you want to play, at Las Cruces before the tournament. This is not exactly a springboard to the tournament.”

Irvine finished the regular season 6-21, 3-15 in the Big West. Only the 1989-90 team, which was 5-23, won fewer regular-season games.

The Anteaters were relaxing in Irvine Thursday when they were handed the final spot in the eight-team Big West tournament because San Jose State eliminated itself with a loss.

“I would think when you’re 6-21 you still have something to play for,” Baker said. “If it’s flipped around and you’re 21-6 and your seeding is already decided, you might not have anything to play for.”

New Mexico State (20-7, 12-6) can still earn the No. 1 seed in the tournament by a tiebreaker if Pacific upsets second-place UC Santa Barbara today. Big West champion Nevada Las Vegas is not participating because it is ineligible for the NCAA tournament.

“It’s very hard to get a team motivated to play a team that’s had a hard season like Irvine has,” New Mexico State Coach Neil McCarthy said. “For the most part I think we have played to the level of the competition. Tonight, I thought we played above that.”

The Aggies made 58% of their shots against Irvine, outrebounded the Anteaters, 42-20, and finished with the most points any team has scored against Irvine this season. Only Brian Sitter’s miss from three-point range in the final seconds prevented the first 100-point game of Baker’s tenure. Ron Putzi rebounded and made a basket with two seconds left.

It was not a good defensive game for Irvine, which saw the contest get out of hand during New Mexico State’s 16-3 run in the first half, giving the Aggies a 22-9 lead after the first 10 minutes.

“I felt like we needed a few defensive stops,” said Keith Stewart, whose 18 points on seven-of-11 shooting led the team. “We played lackadaisical. We just weren’t in sync as far as defense.”

New Mexico State made six shots without a miss in that crucial first-half stretch, and Eric Traylor, who led the Aggies with 15 points, hit four of them.

“We did not do a good job of contesting shots,” Baker said. “Traylor took so many wide open shots.”

Irvine was weakened inside because of nagging injuries to forwards Jeff Von Lutzow and Khari Johnson, both suffering from tendinitis in the knee. Von Lutzow, the team’s leading scorer this season, played only 15 minutes and finished with four points. Johnson had six points in 21 minutes.

The team was also a bit unsettled because four players--starters Craig Marshall, Johnson and Stewart, and key reserve David Hollaway--missed Friday’s practice because of final exams and did not join the team in Las Cruces until Friday evening.

“Games like these, all the moons need to be aligned, the stars in the right place for us to be successful,” Baker said.

The Anteaters’ last chance for a scrap of success will be in the Big West tournament next week in Long Beach. Irvine will play either Santa Barbara or a rematch with New Mexico State.

Baker, weighing the factors in Saturday’s loss, says he isn’t certain whether his team is faltering.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I just don’t think we were really at full strength.”

Stewart hopes the Anteaters have something left.

“I don’t know, a couple of the guys were telling us they felt like they didn’t have legs,” he said. “There were certain people ready to play and certain people who weren’t.

“I feel like this, I never give up on our team. We have a week to get corrected and get ready. Anything can happen. I still feel we’ve played every team in the conference tough. There’s nobody we’re afraid of.”

The first-round Friday will tell the tale.

“If you can’t get up to play in the conference tournament,” Baker said, “you really might want to consider taking up a different sport.”