Irvine Has Big Second Half to Knock Off Iowa, 86-78

UC Irvine, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, the team that had made a habit of falling 15 points behind before half the fans had found their seats, the group seemed destined to explore every dead-end avenue of defeat, beat Iowa Wednesday night.

Iowa.

Big Ten Iowa.

Lost-by-just-three-points-to-third-ranked-Duke-last-week Iowa.

The Anteaters, who found out just hours before the game that starting point guard Zuri Williams and second-leading scorer Todd Whitehead had been suspended indefinitely for “violating team rules,” pulled together and came away with a 86-78 victory, easily the most significant in Coach Rod Baker’s two-plus seasons at Irvine.

“It was a monster win,” Baker said. “At this point, after what we’ve been going through, it’s just a monster win.”

Chris Brown, who became academically eligible 2 1/2 weeks ago, hit seven of 16 three-pointers and scored 29 points as the Anteaters turned a 36-36 halftime tie into a runaway victory in front of 3,172 in the Bren Center.

Irvine (3-4) led by as many as 12 points in the final minute, but it was Brown’s three-pointer with 1:32 remaining that put the Anteaters ahead, 80-72, and sent the bench into a celebration frenzy.

“What was I thinking then?” Brown said, smiling. “I was thinking, ‘We beat Iowa. We just beat a Big Ten team.’ ”

Guard Lloyd Mumford, who had to play the whole 40 minutes because of the suspension of guards Williams and Whitehead, missed all six of his first-half shots. But he finished with 14 points, including eight clutch free throws as the Anteaters held off late rallies by Iowa (5-3).

“We were disciplined and we executed,” Mumford said. “We didn’t get down on ourselves and we came together as a unit. This makes up for some of the games we felt like we should have won earlier.”

Irvine shot only 43% for the game, but they shot 50% in the second half and put together a 25-16 run after the intermission that gave them a nine-point lead when Brown swished in another three-pointer from a yard behind the three-point stripe with 13:12 to play.

“We talked before the game,” Baker said. “We can sit here and say, ‘Oh, we have to play without two of our better guys,’ and feel sorry for ourselves. Or we can face the adversity. We’ve been too inward lately, too businesslike. And I think we were a little more emotional tonight.

“Of course it helps when you have Chris Brown in a zone. He missed three or four shots early, but they were all right there. And you don’t need to tell him to keep shooting.”

Brown shrugged.

“When I was growing up as a shooter,” he said, “they always told me not to lose confidence if I missed a few. So I didn’t get mad at myself and just kept shooting.”

Irvine didn’t win this one on Brown’s long-range shooting alone, however. The Anteaters’ pressure defense forced the Hawkeyes into 28 turnovers and caused Iowa Coach Tom Davis to say, “It’s not really fair to focus on the negatives of our play right now. You have to give them credit. They did a really nice job. They were very aggressive all night. They bodied up and created a lot of those turnovers.”

Irvine played the final 10 minutes of the game with all of their inside players--Jermaine Avie, DeForrest Boyer and Joe Hannon--hampered with four fouls. Boyer fouled out with 1:17 left, finishing with eight points and four rebounds. Avie hung in until the anything-but-bitter end, scoring 10 points and had 10 rebounds.