San Jose State Feels No Fear : Basketball: After pregame scuffle, the Spartans win, 72-67, dealing UC Irvine its eighth loss in nine games.

UC Irvine fought San Jose State for the chance to hold a team huddle at center court during a pregame shoving match Thursday night. Then the Anteaters took turns exchanging fierce looks and body slams in front of their bench during player introductions.

They didn’t put up enough fight after the game started, however, and lost their fifth consecutive Big West game, 72-67, in front of 2,491 at the Event Center.

Spartan Coach Stan Morrison ran out on the court to mediate the pregame rugby scrum, but it never really appeared to be headed toward a serious brawl. In fact, some players on both teams were laughing.

After the game, however, only San Jose State players were smiling.

“I guess they were trying to make a statement,” San Jose guard Terry Cannon said. “We felt we were hit on the chin, so to speak. It was a respect thing. They were trying to take us out of the game before the game started, getting us thinking about something other than basketball and we took it as a challenge.”

Cannon, who scored 26 points in the Spartans’ victory Jan. 12 at Irvine, met the challenge with 21 Thursday night, driving to the basket almost at will and grabbing five key rebounds, three on the offensive end that he turned into baskets.

“I just thought guys were messing around,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said.”(Intimidation) wasn’t the intent. If that’s where you need to find affronts, then your life is a little lacking.”

The Anteaters (5-12, 2-7 in conference) appear to be the ones who are lacking: direction, a consistency of effort, a go-to shooter, good decision making in clutch situations . . . the list is growing with each defeat. And Irvine has now dropped eight of its last nine games.

San Jose lacking? Not in momentum. The Spartans (10-8, 6-4) have won five of six and the only loss in that stretch was by one point to 25th-ranked New Mexico State.

“We probably should have put them away when we got the big lead in the second half,” Cannon said, “but we let down a little. That’s going to happen. But, in the past, when we’ve had those lapses, we’ve gotten down on ourselves.”

Not anymore. This is a team that’s oozing confidence.

Irvine got off to a quick start--energized by the scuffle, perhaps?--and went ahead, 8-3, but characteristically fell into the offensive doldrums while the Spartans went on an 18-3 run. The Anteaters recovered some of the ground thanks to the inside play of center DeForrest Boyer, who was four for four from the floor in the first half and finished with a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds.

The Anteaters trailed, 35-28, at halftime, but San Jose scored the first eight points of the second half and stretched the advantage to 13 points with nine minutes remaining. But Chris Brown, who had 16 points, and Mark Odsather each made a couple of three-pointers and Irvine twice closed to three in the final minute.

Cannon and guard Les Shepherd combined to make seven of eight free throws in the last 34 seconds, however, sealing the victory.

“Let’s not be mistaken about it, we were outplayed by this team, again,” Baker said, “I think we defended better this time, but I can’t believe these rebounding stats.”

The box score had Irvine outrebounding San Jose, 44-38, but it certainly didn’t seem like it. The Spartans clearly got the majority of the important rebounds, anyway. The Anteaters, coming off back-to-back overtime heartbreaks, didn’t excel in any area this time around. They committed 12 first-half turnovers and shot 37% from the field for the game.

Point guard Lloyd Mumford, who had scored 73 points and made 33 of 38 free throws in the previous three games, turned in an admittedly sub-par performance. He was one of seven from the floor, had six points and four turnovers, not to mention a bundle of poorly conceived and ill-fated passes that teammates never received.

“I had to ask guys if it looked like I was trying hard,” Mumford said. “I just didn’t feel up to my game. Not sick, just sluggish.”