Mumford Comes Through for Anteaters

He may look odd as he skitters around the court with goggles to protect the stitches in his left eyelid, but give Lloyd Mumford this: Tear his eyelid, he plays; twist his ankle, he plays.

Put the game on the line with the clock running out, and Mumford usually does something . And as the second-half clock was ticking and UC Irvine was threatening to watch another lead evaporate, Mumford scored seven consecutive points that helped propel the Anteaters to a 78-71 victory over Utah State before 6,196 spectators Monday night.

Mumford led the Anteaters (5-7, 2-2) with 18 points and added six assists, and the question people were dying to ask afterward was: Lloyd, don’t those threads hanging over your left eyeball affect your shot?

“Um, yeah,” Mumford said. “But I’m not a complainer. I just have a sprained foot and 12 stitches over my eye, but all I want to do is win games.”

Uh, thought that was eight stitches there, Lloyd.

“It goes up every day,” he said, grinning.

When you break a three-game losing streak and finally get back on track, even for one night, who cares about details?

Utah State (6-8, 3-3), playing without 7-foot Nathan Wickizer (who sprained his ankle Saturday against Cal State Fullerton), turned the ball over only five times. Irvine, which led for 37:30 of the first 38 minutes, watched the Aggies go on a 7-0 run to take a 69-68 lead with 2:15 to play.

But then something happened. The Anteaters started getting the ball inside, and DeForrest Boyer, who finished with 17 points on five-of-eight shooting, completed a three-point play, hit an inside shot and sank a free throw. Mumford made four more free throws. And Irvine scored 10 of the game’s last 12 points.

“At halftime, Coach told us we were going to dump the ball inside and go to the hoop,” Boyer said. “That’s what we’re going to have to do to be effective.”

And what helped the Anteaters, recovering from a 98-85 loss at Nevada on Saturday, was Boyer’s inside work, which opened up the outside. Irvine made six of 11 three-pointers.

And Mumford scored seven points in a row around the eight-minute mark to keep Irvine on top, 63-58.

“Nevada was able to extend its defense to our shooters,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “Tonight, Mark Odsather (nine points) got a wide-open shot, Lloyd Mumford got wide-open shots, Todd Whitehead (nine points) got wide-open shots and Chris Brown (nine points) got wide-open shots--and that never happens.

“Yeah, we answered the call tonight because we got open shots.”

And on the flip side, even though Irvine’s press and man-to-man defense caused only five turnovers, Baker still was pleased with the way it worked.

“We just want the game to be played at a certain rate and we got that tonight,” Baker said. “If we get a turnover, fine, but that’s not the issue. The issue is getting the game to be played a certain way.”

Mumford is a large part of that game plan, whether he scores or passes or presses. His penetration Monday helped open some things.

“That’s my job sometimes, not scoring but getting certain people in certain positions,” Mumford said. “Tonight, what they needed me to be was offensive-minded. I hadn’t been going to the hoop, and Coach confronted me on that.”

It was all enough to impress Utah State Coach Larry Eustachy.

“Irvine didn’t crack,” he said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They had a chance to crack but didn’t. This is the best team they’ve had in the last few years.”

Not that Eustachy would have minded a couple of extra days to prepare.

“We play better when we have time to prepare for someone,” Eustachy said. “We had a week to prepare for Fullerton (which Utah State defeated Saturday, 59-50). For Irvine, we had one hour on Sunday.

“Why we play four games in eight days, I don’t know. But we have these million-dollar TV contracts . . .”