Despite Problems, UCI Wins Opener : College basketball: Anteaters defeat Division III Salem State, 95-67, but they make only 45% of shots from the field.

New Mexico State Coach Neil McCarthy said it. UC Irvine Coach Rod Baker said it. Anteater guard Lloyd Mumford said it. The preseason consensus was that all Irvine needed to get over the hump and become a good team was to win some games early.

Well, Irvine is 1-0, but the Anteaters’ season-opening 95-67 victory over Division III Salem State Friday night in front of 1,884 at the Bren Center wasn’t exactly a turkey shoot. Irvine displayed predicted defensive prowess and a willingness to crash the boards, but the Anteaters shot 45% from the field and 62% from the free-throw line against a team that has only one player who isn’t from Massachusetts, only two players taller than 6-4 and a starter who was listed at 250 pounds but had to be closer to 300.

In the first half, the Anteaters made only 38% of their field-goal attempts and the only reason they led, 39-24, at the intermission was because they took almost twice as many shots as the Vikings.

At one point midway through the second half, with Irvine leading, 51-36, the bigger, stronger, quicker Anteaters missed eight consecutive shots . . . on one possession.

“I think if you’ll come break down the video with me, you’ll see we missed more layups than jump shots,” Baker said. “This is one of those games where it’s hard to say what number you would be satisfied with. But if we were up by 50 at halftime, we shouldn’t have been satisfied with the way we played.

“We played better in the second half, but it’s going to take a better effort than this on Tuesday (against Utah).”

Irvine finally found the range--about the same time Salem State ran out of gas--and ran the Vikings off the court, forcing turnovers and scoring off the break and on follow shots.

“We’re happy with the win, but we didn’t play the way we could,” Mumford said. “We expect a certain level of intensity and execution, but we can build from here. We’re working on getting the kinks out.

“A lot of us had bad shooting nights. For me, it just didn’t feel right tonight.”

Clearly, it was contagious. Of Irvine’s perimeter shooters, only forward Mark Odsather made more than half of his shots.

“The defense comes first, though,” Mumford said. “We focus on that and we all love to play it. And we score most of our points off the break because of our defense.”

Irvine forced 25 turnovers and forced the Vikings to lose their poise at times in the second half.

“We panicked a little bit under their pressure, which surprised me because I thought we were prepared for it,” Salem State Coach Jim Todd said. “But they’re bigger and stronger and quicker and that was the difference in the end.”

One thing is becoming evident, however, Irvine is no gang of straight shooters. The one player who could hit the open shot in the first half--reserve forward Khalid Channell--couldn’t seem to dribble . . . at least not soon enough.

Channell was called for traveling three times while attempting to initiate the dribble.

“I’m pretty happy with the way I’m playing, but I need to calm down a little on the offensive end and work on maintaining my defensive intensity,” said Channell, who was seven of 11 from the field and led the Anteaters with 17 points. Channell had four offensive rebounds and turned three of them into immediate points.

As was the case in both of their exhibition victories, the Anteaters’ trapping, pressure defense eventually took its toll on an overmatched opponent as they steadily pulled away in the second half.