Irvine Loses in Final Seconds, 86-85

UC Irvine had a one-point lead with 21 seconds left Friday night at Kemper Arena. But Missouri Kansas City had Tony Dumas and the basketball.

“You don’t need to be John Wooden to figure out Tony Dumas or Ronnie Schmitz is going to get the ball,” said Irvine Coach Rod Baker, whose team lost, 86-85, after Dumas broke open to take a pass, dribbled to the left of the lane and made a closely guarded 10-footer with five seconds left.

Dumas, a 6-foot-5 junior guard, scored 32 points--24 during the second half--as Missouri Kansas City advanced to meet No. 2 Kansas tonight in the final of the Golden Harvest Classic. Irvine will play Mississippi Valley State, which lost to Kansas, 94-46. Kansas opened the game with a 41-4 run.

Irvine’s Jeff Von Lutzow tied his personal best with 27 points and had 13 rebounds. Keith Stewart added 18 points.

Missouri Kansas City (2-2) outshot Irvine, 54% to 43.3%, but still needed the final shot to win.

Irvine (0-2) wanted to deny Dumas the ball, but fearful that that he would cut backdoor for an easy basket, the Anteaters let him get it well outside.

Elzie Love, who came back into the game specifically to guard Dumas, stayed in front of him and went up with Dumas on the shot. He managed not to foul him, but Dumas made the shot anyway.

“He did a good job against him. He stopped him at 10 feet,” Baker said. “They ran this play they run a lot. It’s called get it to Tony Dumas and get out of his way.”

Irvine chose to push the ball upcourt in the midst of the chaos that followed instead of taking a timeout, but point guard Lloyd Mumford didn’t get his shot off in time.