Basketball Rebounds in Round 2 : College: Officials hope Titans and Anteaters play a game tonight, and avoid the rough stuff.

This bulletin just in: There will be no boxing referees at tonight’s UC Irvine-Cal State Fullerton rematch at 8:30 in Titan Gym.

Repeat, no boxing referees.

“Well, I think it’s still a basketball game, so we’ll have basketball officials there,” said Dennis Farrell, Big West Conference commissioner.

The last time these two teams met, there was plenty of chaos. Shortly after a 61-59 Titan victory on Jan. 16, Irvine’s Uzoma Obiekea punched Fullerton’s Bruce Bowen as the teams were shaking hands, dropping Bowen like the economy and igniting a 10-minute brawl.

Tonight, Round 2.

The Angry Anteaters vs. the Fightin’ Titans.

“All indications from both institutions are that they want to bury the ax,” Farrell said, neglecting to say just where the ax would be buried. “It was an unfortunate situation precipitated by one player. They want to get it behind them and have a good game.

“Certainly, the first one was entertaining. We don’t anticipate a problem.”

To make sure, Irvine’s Obiekea and LaDay Smith, who didn’t play Jan. 16 but left the bench and dropped his crutches to jump into the battle, will miss tonight’s game courtesy of the stiffest punishment in Big West history. Obiekea was suspended for five games--including tonight’s. Smith, who has played in only eight games this season because of injuries, was barred from tonight’s game.

If Irvine and Fullerton should happen to play in the conference tournament, neither Obiekea nor Smith will be allowed to play.

“It was a disaster, last game,” said Irvine guard Lloyd Mumford. “You get alumni and parents there, and then they say we’re all just a bunch of wild kids trying to fight. We’re not.”

Coaches and players have avoided the subject of their first encounter.

“I have not had any conversation about it whatsoever,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s a conference game, in Orange County, against a team we lost to at the buzzer.”

Said Fullerton Coach Brad Holland: “We don’t even talk about it. We just talk about defending our home court and trying to win a conference game. We all know the controversy surrounding the previous game and the fact that we’re rivals.

“What this is is another important conference game.”

Fullerton school officials, though, are counting on each coach to make sure there is not a repeat incident. Mary Ann Tripodi, Fullerton’s director of athletic operations, said there will be no extra security at tonight’s game. The Titans are expecting a crowd of 2,500 and there will be the normal four or five campus police officers on duty.

“We’re not going to treat it any different than any other game,” Tripodi said. “I think it’s being covered by the coaches and the institutions. The Big West has addressed it.

“It’s a normal game. (The fight) is over and done with.”

Farrell will be there tonight, although he said his presence is not due to the previous incident. He missed the last game between the two teams because he was attending the NCAA convention in Dallas.

Coincidentally, Farrell and Bill Shumard, Fullerton’s athletic director, shared a ride from their Dallas hotel to the airport on the Sunday morning after the brawl. They had each heard something about a fight the previous night, but the information was sketchy. There certainly wasn’t enough of it to make them reconsider coming home in favor of, say, Tahiti.

“At that point, I didn’t know how serious it was,” Farrell said. “We didn’t know what had occurred, if any ejections had occurred . . .

“I didn’t realize what I was coming back to.”

Farrell found himself watching three different videotapes early the next week and then, by chance, he was scheduled to be on a television talk show that Wednesday.

“I was scheduled to talk about the NCAA convention but I wound up fielding phone calls about the other situation most of the evening.

“A number of them felt that the suspensions were not strong enough, but what people lose sight of is that a four-game suspension, if equated to an 82-game NBA season, is nothing.

“But four in college basketball, especially at that point in the season when there are only 12 or 13 games left, that is significant.”

Predictably, Irvine and Fullerton coaches and players don’t agree, either.

“Some of that stuff was so flagrant,” Titan forward Kim Kemp said. “It was really unnecessary. I would have done things differently.”

Players say there hasn’t been much talk around the campuses this week of tonight’s rematch. Baker scouted Fullerton’s 77-63 loss to Houston on Wednesday and had no problems in Titan Gym.

“The crowd was great,” Baker said. “I went over there and people came up to me and no one said anything, you know, so that is not a concern at all.”

Said Mumford: “I know the fans will be jumping around screaming at us and booing us, but we can’t get caught up in that.”

Both teams have lost two of their last three. While Fullerton will be gaining a few players tonight--Kemp, center Sean Williams and point guard Aaron Sunderland will start after serving a one-game suspension this week for violating team rules in Nevada--Irvine will be missing a couple.

Mumford, though, said the Anteaters should not be affected much.

“The way our offense is set up, if (Obiekea and Smith) can score points and rebound, that’s a plus for us,” Mumford said. “It’s tough losing them because they are bodies and you need to substitute.”

As for Bowen, he would just as soon people forget the sight of him on the Irvine court with Obiekea kicking at his head.

“When (the second semester) started, people were coming up to me saying, ‘Bruce, man, we saw it on TV. What was that guy’s problem?’ ” Bowen said. “I got a lot of sympathetic calls.

“I don’t want that stuff. I don’t want people remembering me for the fight.

“I’d rather they remember me for the things I accomplish on the basketball court.”

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.