Anteaters Stop SCC, Coast to a Victory : College basketball: Irvine erupts for 22-0 lead and breezes to 111-77 triumph in Disneyland Freedom Bowl Classic.

Southern California College, an 800-student NAIA school in Costa Mesa, hadn’t played UC Irvine since 1976. The Vanguards probably aren’t eager for another opportunity any time soon.

Irvine scored the first 22 points, holding SCC scoreless for the first 5 minutes 54 seconds of the Anteaters’ 111-77 victory Monday in front of 3,218 in the first round of the Disneyland Freedom Bowl Classic at the Bren Center.

SCC missed its first 10 shots as Irvine bolted from the gate. Jeff Von Lutzow’s three-pointer gave Irvine a 22-0 lead and 10 seconds later, Danin Bryant hit a layup to score SCC’s first points with 14:06 left in the half.

“We didn’t expect to come in here and maybe knock them off, but we hoped to be competitive,” SCC Coach Bill Reynolds said. “It seemed like a good idea to play in this tournament in July. Now, I’m not so sure we belonged.”

Irvine plays 10th-ranked Georgetown in the tournament final Wednesday at 8 p.m.

“Anybody’s beatable,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “Yes, I think we can beat them. We’re going to try.”

Irvine (2-3) got 23 points and nine rebounds from Jeff Von Lutzow in 19 minutes. Five other players scored in double figures, including LaDay Smith and Keith Stewart, who each had 13. Stewart had seven assists and Lloyd Mumford had six, though each played little more than a half.

Irvine’s lead swelled to 27 points before the first eight minutes had passed.

“We needed to come out and play,” Baker said. “We had yet to demonstrate in our four games and two exhibition games that we can come out and play.”

This was definitely a change.

“It felt like what some teams have done to us in previous games,” said Jeff Von Lutzow. “I’ve been in that situation. I know how it feels. That team showed courage coming back and getting it down to 14. They play hard. I respect them.”

Baker didn’t seem to relax as Irvine’s shutout continued. Instead, he seemed to get more worked up.

“I may be as guilty as anyone for not being ready to go,” he said.

This time was different.

“I was (ticked off) we didn’t get the opening tip,” he said.

“We kept at them for two minutes, then three minutes, now almost eight minutes. We were playing about as good as we can play. We were scoring points and we were stopping them.”

Baker sent in three subs when Irvine was leading, 27-2. It wasn’t compassion for SCC, he said. His players were tired.

Reynolds, who has one of his less talented teams in recent years, was impressed with Irvine’s start.

“I really felt UCI came out very focused,” he said. “It can be tough to get kids up for an NAIA school. It was a combination of them playing well and us missing shots. We live and die with the three-point shot.”

Bryant and John Naro each scored 16 points for SCC and Bryant had eight assists. But SCC (5-5) made only 33% of its shots, and just nine of 32 from three-point range.

Still, the Vanguards cut the gap to 14 points in the first half as Irvine faltered after the hot start. The Anteaters heard about it from Baker at halftime, when they led by 20.

Irvine shot 64.7% and it’s 111 points were the most it has scored since Dec. 13, 1988 in a victory against Eastern Washington. The previous high under Baker was the 97 Irvine scored last week in a 115-97 loss to Nevada Las Vegas.

Baker wouldn’t admit any pride in the total.

“You only need two more than the other team,” he said.

This time, they got 34 more.