Loss to Pacific All Too Familiar for Anteaters : Big West: They shoot poorly early, climb back into it, then make enough mistakes to fall, 88-79.

Another game, another arena, another team, another loss.

What can you say?

“Not a whole lot,” UC Irvine Coach Rod Baker admitted after the Anteaters lost their sixth in a row Saturday night. “The effort was pretty good, but in crucial situations, we just didn’t make the plays.”

So what else is new?

Irvine hung close to University of the Pacific during much of the first half and was six points down with six minutes to play. But the Anteaters gave up a couple of easy layups and took a couple of quick shots and succumbed again, 88-79, in front of 4,571 at the Spanos Center.

Pacific is 8-3 in the Big West, a half game behind New Mexico State (8-2), which lost to Utah State Saturday night. The Tigers, who haven’t been in first place in the conference since 1979, are one point short of being 11-0 at home after losing in overtime to New Mexico State last week.

Irvine (5-13, 2-8) got a school-record 10 three-pointers from Chris Brown, who made 11 of 20 shots and finished with 36 points. Brown surpassed Scott Brooks’ 1987 school record of nine three-pointers against Nevada Las Vegas and tied the Big West record of 10 set by Nevada Las Vegas’ Freddie Banks in 1987.

“This is the way I usually shoot, this is what I’m used to,” said Brown, who made 130 three-pointers last season at Bakersfield College. “It’s hard to celebrate, though, because we ended up with another ‘L.’ We’re just having a lot of bad luck right now.”’

Irvine’s misfortunes began early Saturday night when point guard Lloyd Mumford and center DeForrest Boyer both got into foul trouble. Mumford, the team’s leading scorer coming in, finished with only two points.

“The shots Lloyd got tonight were no different than the ones he got at Long Beach (when he scored 31),” Baker said. “I don’t know what the difference was tonight.

“But when he’s in foul trouble, you get a very tentative human being. He wants to play, and play a certain way, and when he gets into foul trouble, he can’t play like that.”

Irvine suffered from the same problems Saturday night that have contributed most heavily to its recent woes. It’s a hit-and-miss game for the Anteaters: Their opponents hit, they miss. Pacific shot 54% from the floor and Irvine only 39%.

The Tigers got a big boost from forward Michael Jackson, the conference’s leading scorer who had just eight points in the first meeting between the teams. Jackson made six of his first nine shots and finished with 27 points and seven rebounds.

“We didn’t play as well tonight as we did (Thursday) against Fullerton, but that was probably our best game of the season,” Tiger Coach Bob Thomason said. “But tonight we did the things we had to do to win. I think we gave up too many points, but they only shot 39%.”

Pacific shot 61% in the first half and led at the intermission, 43-30. They had seven points off the fast break and six points off turnovers. Irvine had zeros in both categories, so there’s your 13-point halftime margin.

Brown, who scored 25 in the second half, began netting long shots--a couple of times he made them from two or three yards beyond the three-point arc--and Irvine started to sneak back into the game.

When Brown was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws, the Anteaters trailed, 65-59, with 6:11 remaining. But Pacific’s Glenn Griffin scored on a layup, was fouled and made the free throw.

Irvine got a layup from Boyer, but on its next two possessions, Brown and Mumford took and missed three-point attempts before more than a couple of seconds had run off the shot clock. Then the Tigers made 12 of 14 free throws in the final 1 1/2 minutes to hang on.

“Lloyd’s was a bad shot, but with Chris at that point, it’s hard to complain,” Baker said. “I’d prefer we would show more patience on offense, but when Chris is feeling it like that . . . “

But Brown’s magic touch wasn’t enough, and the Anteaters are left feeling only numb.