Anteaters’ Old Ways Lead to 71-67 Loss : Basketball: Nevada’s zone defense contains UC Irvine, which can’t generate much offense without Von Lutzow.

People looked at UC Irvine’s team before this season and saw new talent. Now they are seeing the same old record, and the same old lapses against the few teams the Anteaters are expected to beat.

Nevada joined the Big West this season and lost its first two conference games by an average of 21 points.

But Saturday night, the Wolf Pack met Irvine. Nevada introduced the Anteaters to its matchup zone defense and then handed Irvine its fifth loss in a row, 71-67, before 2,002 in the Bren Center.

“We’re not in a very good situation right now,” said Irvine Coach Rod Baker. “This is really a tough time for us.”

Irvine (2-8, 0-3) was without its second-leading scorer, Jeff Von Lutzow, who did not dress for the game because of a sprained big left toe. Another starter, LaDay Smith, didn’t start because of disciplinary reasons and was hampered afterward by a nagging foot injury. That essentially left the offense up to Keith Stewart and point guard Lloyd Mumford--mostly Stewart, in truth. It was as one-dimensional as it sounds.

Stewart scored 25 points and made seven three-pointers against a zone that shut off Mumford’s penetration and kept the inside game quiet.

Problem was, Stewart was option A-1 and there wasn’t really an A-2. It took him 25 shots to get his seven field goals. His 21 shots from three-point range were a school record.

While Stewart was putting up shots every time he saw daylight, Mumford scored 12 points on four-of-17 shooting. Nevada dared him to shoot from outside, and won the bet. He made only one of eight from three-point range.

Irvine shot 31.7% in the game. The Anteaters made only 20 field goals (11 were three-pointers).

The first half was dismal offensively for both teams, resulting in a 27-24 Irvine lead at halftime.

The Anteaters shot only 29.2% in the first half, making seven field goals.

Nevada (6-4, 1-2) was worse. The Wolf Pack had seven field goals, too, but missed four more shots to finish at 25%.

Irvine led by as many as eight points in the first half, but let most of the lead slip away.

Then the Wolf Pack held Irvine scoreless for the first 5:25 of the second half. Irvine missed its first seven shots before Stewart hit a three. Meanwhile, Nevada center Ric Herrin took advantage of lax inside defense. He led Nevada with 16 points. Melvin Jones had 15 and Eric Morris and Rod Brown each had 12. Nevada shot 59.3% in the second half.

Nevada led by as many as 13, and though Irvine narrowed the lead late in the game and fouled in attempts to work the clock, the Anteaters got no closer than four.

There were few contributions from anyone other than Stewart, Mumford and reserve guard Todd Whitehead, who gave Irvine a boost with 14 points.

“I think it’s just chemistry,” Mumford said. “With Jeff out, we had to pick up his shots and we needed other guys to take more shots.”

Other than the three leading scorers, the rest of the team went four for 14. One notably quiet player was Dee Boyer, who scored only three points for the second consecutive game.

“I believe he’s healthy,” Baker said. “I also believe he’s struggling.”

Nevada Coach Len Stevens staked his game plan on slowing down Mumford, who creates shots for teammates by penetrating and dumping passes inside or kicking passes out for three-pointers.

“I was so worried about their quickness,” Stevens said. “We couldn’t handle (Utah State’s Jay) Goodman, and we knew Mumford was better. We didn’t want him in those gaps. We decided to let Mumford shoot outside. We didn’t want to let him beat us by penetrating.”

He didn’t penetrate much, and Nevada didn’t get beaten.

“I think they took a lot of his options away,” Baker said. “I did not see guys open inside.

“What it did was it took away our big guys. It put so much pressure on our outside player to make shots.”

What it came down to was asking Stewart to win a game by himself. He couldn’t. “From where I was, those shots looked straight, they just weren’t falling,” Stewart said. “Everybody has those nights once in a while.”

But if he hadn’t been forced to try 25 shots, he probably would have had better success.

The Anteaters thought they’d be having better success by now.

“Yes, I think people have misjudged the talent,” Baker said. “I also do not think they have performed at their talent level. We’ve played three conference games. We have 15 more. There are too many games left to be all of a sudden deciding if this team is a bust or not.”