Anteaters Get Close, but Stumble in End : Basketball: UC Irvine ties score at 73, only to blow several opportunities in final minutes of 79-76 loss to Boston University.

Lloyd Mumford left Walter Brown Arena with some homemade sweet potato pie and a half-dozen hugs from his gathered family Tuesday night. But he and his UC Irvine teammates were heading home with the taste of a 79-76 season-opening loss to Boston University.

The Anteaters, who crawled back into the game time and time again only to stumble out of it, trailed by three in the final 15 seconds when their last chances fell away. Mumford pulled up for a three-pointer that bounded off the rim, but he got the ball back, drove and dished to Khari Johnson. Johnson went up strong and was fouled hard, but the three-point-play possibility died when the ball didn’t fall through. Irvine’s hopes sank for good when Johnson missed both free throws with four seconds left and Boston University rebounded.

“We didn’t win,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “When all is said and done with, that’s why we came here.”

Mumford’s debut was wrapped in pressure. He is a transfer from Villanova who was playing his first college game in a year and a half, and he was playing in an ice rink-turned-basketball arena 20 minutes from his family’s home in Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood.

“I just wanted to try to play good for my family and friends and most of all for the team,” said Mumford, who was one of three Irvine players with upset stomachs Tuesday. Dee Boyer, Irvine’s starting center, missed the game because of nausea. Starting forward Elzie Love played, but said he felt “terrible.” Still, he had nine points and eight rebounds and made a diving steal of a bounce pass that helped key one of Irvine’s runs.

The Anteaters trailed by eight at halftime and never led in the second half. But they tied the score, 73-73, with three minutes left on two free throws by Jeff Von Lutzow, who led the Anteaters with 25 points and 14 rebounds. But the Anteaters watched Boston University pull ahead by six with about a minute left.

Then came the hurried desperation of Irvine’s last few possessions. Mumford missed three outside shots in the final minute, one of them an air ball that drew a rumble from the Boston crowd.

“I felt bad because I’m playing sick. I played a bad game,” Mumford said. “I still haven’t played up to my potential.”

He finished with seven points, five assists, three steals and three turnovers. He made three of 11 shots, missing all five three-point attempts, though three-pointers are not his strength.

“I still feel as we go on, game by game, he’s going to get a lot better,” said guard Keith Stewart, who made four of 14 shots and only one of six three-pointers to finish with 14 points.

Irvine only got as close as it did because the Terriers missed four free throws in the final 30 seconds and Von Lutzow’s three-pointer with 18 seconds left cut the lead to 79-76.

“We didn’t get what we wanted out of those last few possessions,” Baker said. “We didn’t play hard enough. We did in stretches, but we weren’t disciplined enough when we got it back to a manageable game. Every time we got back into it, we’d come back and turn it over or take a quick shot.”