UCI Almost Tames Beast of the East : College basketball: Georgetown trails the Anteaters by six early, but rallies to win the Disneyland Freedom Bowl final, 64-60.

The day Rod Baker was hired as coach at UC Irvine, the former Seton Hall assistant promised to bring East Coast basketball to Orange County. It was a comment that rankled plenty of people at the time. They took it as an insult.

But no Irvine fans were complaining Wednesday night, when a sellout crowd of 5,022 watched Irvine challenge 10th-ranked Georgetown for about 36 minutes before losing, 64-60, in the final of the Disneyland Freedom Bowl Classic at the Bren Center.

“It’s a loss. The only thing losing teaches you is how to lose,” Baker said. “But at least we can take away the fact that we held the No. 10 team in the country to 60 points, less than that if you take away the free throws at the end.”

While the Irvine crowd chanted “Over . . . Rated, Over . . . Rated,” Georgetown had to fight hard against the Anteaters, a team that won only seven games last season and was 2-3 before facing the Hoyas.

Irvine took a 6-0 lead at the outset, and neither team was able to edge ahead by more than six until the second half. Georgetown led by one at halftime, 30-29.

The first 10 minutes of the second half were a back-and-forth affair, neither team managing to spring free of the other by more than a few points until Georgetown began to ease out to five- and six-point leads. When Robert Churchwell rebounded and stuck in a 10-foot jumper, Georgetown led by seven with just more than six minutes left. Irvine got it back to three with 4:42 left when Lloyd Mumford fed Dee Boyer for a dunk.

But down the stretch, Georgetown took advantage of a long possession against the zone Irvine switched to, getting rebounds and eating up the clock.

With 2 1/2 minutes left, the lead was only two after Mumford made a free throw after being fouled while driving the lane.

But on the next Georgetown possession, Dee Boyer was whistled for a foul with 1:41 left as he stepped in front of Othella Harrington to make a steal. Harrington made both free throws, and the lead was four again.

After the Hoyas’ Joey Brown stole Irvine’s inbounds pass, the Anteaters were playing desperately the rest of the way.

Georgetown made eight of 11 free throws in the final two minutes.

“I think we played hard, but we made a couple of crucial mistakes at the end, a couple of lackadaisical plays with the ball,” Mumford said. “(But) I think we figured out if we play hard, good things happen. If we’d played this hard last week against UNLV, there’s no way we would have lost.”

Irvine matched up with Georgetown surprisingly well. Harrington, the Hoyas’ 6-foot-10 freshman center, has been the team’s leading scorer. But Irvine had Boyer, a 6-10 center of equal bulk, to put on him. Boyer leaned into Harrington from behind, and got help from his teammates collapsing down whenever Harrington got the ball.

Harrington, who scored 14 points, was hampered by foul trouble from the outset and fouled out in the final minute. It was the Hoyas’ forwards who hurt Irvine, taking advantage of the focus on Harrington. Duane Spencer, the Hoyas’ other 6-10 freshman, had 20 points and 11 rebounds. Churchwell had 13.

The Anteaters also matched up well with the Hoyas in the backcourt, where Irvine countered Irvin Church and the Hoyas’ point guard, Joey Brown, with two quick guards who play good defense, Keith Stewart and Mumford. Mumford, a Villanova transfer, had a little extra at stake in facing an old Big East rival, and he was on his game against the Hoyas, penetrating well and slinging pin-point passes to his open teammates.

Irvine’s problems on offense stemmed from its lack of success shooting outside. Georgetown opted to play a zone defense, and the Anteaters had didn’t hit a three-pointer until the final minutes, going two for 10.

Stewart--who hit two in the final six seconds--scored 14 points, LaDay Smith added 14 and Mumford had 13 points and eight assists.

Georgetown Coach John Thompson applauded Irvine’s defense and the penetration that helped get the Hoyas in foul trouble. But he also saw something he likes in his fledgling team, a team that starts two freshmen and no seniors. Monday night, the Hoyas came back from 10 points down to win. Wednesday they came back from six down, and fought the whole way.

“As I told the kids, you can’t teach heart,” Thompson said. “We could have lost Monday, we could have lost today. They hung in there. If somebody doesn’t beat us quick, we’re going to grow up.”