Irvine Lets One Get Away : Basketball: Anteaters rally from 15-point deficit to take lead with 3:44 left, but Houston comes back to win, 86-78.

UC Irvine kept probing Houston on Monday, pushing and running and trying to see if another of this city’s teams would cough up a game.

The Oilers blew a 32-point lead to Buffalo Sunday afternoon. Sunday night, the Rockets had a seven-point lead over Portland with one minute left--then lost in overtime.

Irvine had the Cougars on the ropes in front of 2,770 at Hofheinz Pavilion, coming from 15 points behind in the first half and 12 in the second to take a one-point lead with 3:44 left in the game. But this Houston team held on to win, 86-78.

“We were up by one, but that wasn’t enough with two or three minutes left,” Irvine forward LaDay Smith said. “We still need to be up by one with zero left on the clock. Tonight we ended up down eight.”

Irvine, which had trailed since about six minutes into the game, went ahead, 73-72, when a wide-open Keith Stewart buried a three-pointer from the top of the key after Jeff Von Lutzow faked a shot and passed outside.

“They’re a good team, they had no quit in them at all,” Houston Coach Pat Foster said.

But Irvine (2-6) scored only five points the rest of the way, and Houston spent most of its time at the line because the Anteaters were whistled for unintentional fouls. The calls--including two offensive fouls against Irvine--rankled Anteater Coach Rod Baker.

Houston (6-2) made eight consecutive free throws, and with the help of a 16-foot jumper by Anthony Goldwire and a three-pointer by David Diaz, held an 85-76 lead with 25 seconds left.

Irvine’s only points during that stretch came on Von Lutzow’s three-pointer from the baseline in one quick motion after stealing an inbounds pass with 1:19 left.

Von Lutzow, who had averaged only eight points in Irvine’s losses to Nevada Las Vegas, Georgetown and Tulane, broke out of his malaise against Houston. By halftime, he had 17 points. He finished with 23 points, including four three-pointers, and 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. He also passed 1,000 points for his career, and stands at 1,004.

“I was more focused,” Von Lutzow said. “I didn’t let things bother me. I actually was playing for the team and the coaches. . . . I had kind of lost my confidence the past few days. I had my confidence before this game.”

Von Lutzow’s three-pointer after the steal cut Houston’s lead to two, but Diaz was left open and swished a three-pointer 36 seconds later to make it five. Diaz scored 28 points, including four three-pointers. Goldwire had 19 and center Charles Outlaw had 15 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots--several of them situations in which Baker wanted goaltending calls.

Irvine, trying to rebound from a 21-point loss at Tulane on Saturday, had Houston on the run, breaking its press with such ease that Foster called it off. Part of Baker’s strategy was to try to wear down the Cougars, who might have been weary after losing to UCLA by nine in Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.

That much worked, but Irvine was hurt early by leaving players open for shots while focusing on Outlaw, and later, by its offensive failures and allowing Houston some second shots after taking the one-point lead.

The Anteaters turned the ball over on their next possession when Lloyd Mumford was called for traveling as he drove into a crowd in the lane before passing back out to Von Lutzow, who was set up for a three. Then Stewart, who hit all of his four three-pointers during the comeback and finished with 16 points, missed three-point attempts on the next two possessions. Von Lutzow’s three-pointer was sandwiched between charging calls against Smith and Stewart, and Houston’s lead grew to seven with 34 seconds left.

“I thought we tried to bite their heads off, up one with four minutes left,” Baker said. “We wanted to finish it there. You can’t do that.”

Houston led by 15 in the first half after a 15-0 run fueled by six-of-seven shooting and five Irvine turnovers (Irvine finished with 25 after committing 28 against Tulane). But Von Lutzow, abandoned outside the three-point line, hit three in a span of two minutes to help get the lead back to five. It was nine at halftime.

“Tonight, we played harder than we did against Tulane,” said Dee Boyer, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds and did much of the defensive work on Outlaw. “This was really a gut-check for us. If we would have gotten blown out again, it would have shown we’re not together.’

Anteater Notes

Lloyd Mumford had 11 points and a season-high 10 assists. . . . Former UC Irvine players Scott Brooks and Tod Murphy, now of the Houston Rockets, sat behind Irvine’s bench. . . . LaDay Smith played with a nagging foot injury that he said was very painful, and Jeff Von Lutzow suffered a minor foot injury that pained him during the second half. . . . Keith Stewart has scored in double figures for 19 consecutive games. . . . Six of Irvine’s next seven games are at home against Big West Conference teams.

* TITANS LOSE AGAIN: New Mexico State handed Cal State Fullerton its third loss in a row on the road, 78-67. C4