Northridge Beats Irvine

Riding a wave of emotion during victories over Iowa and Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine staggered to an uninspired defeat in its attempt to make it three in a row Saturday night. The Anteaters lost, 68-66, to Cal State Northridge (3-10) in front of 2,167 in Irvine’s Bren Center.

It was a game that started ugly--it was only 2-1 after 4 1/2 minutes--and, for Irvine, finished even uglier. Irvine (4-5) had a chance to tie the game in the final second when Joe Hannon, starting in place of injured center DeForrest Boyer, rebounded a miss by Zuri Williams and instead of putting it back up, turned and threw a pass out to the perimeter as the buzzer sounded.

“I thought we were down by three instead of two,” Hannon said.

Turnovers by both teams prevailed down the stretch.

Northridge took a 68-64 lead with 19 seconds left when Andre Chevalier made two free throws. Khalid Channell, the only Anteater in double figures (16 points), put in a follow shot to cut the deficit to two points. Then Brooklyn McLinn, who led Northridge with 18 points, missed two free throws with eight seconds remaining, giving the Anteaters the chance to send the game into overtime.