COLLEGE BASKETBALL / BIG WEST TOURNAMENT : UC Irvine Holds Off Santa Barbara

Senior point guard Lloyd Mumford said he never once thought, “Here we go again,” but you can bet it was on the mind of every UC Irvine basketball fan in the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday.

UC Santa Barbara did its best to hand the Anteaters a first-round victory in the opening game of the Big West Tournament, but--staying true to their habit of flailing in the face of prosperity--Mumford and Co. refused to take the gift graciously.

And, as winning ugly goes, this one turned out to be a fright mask.

Santa Barbara missed 20 of its first 22 shots and made only five of 34 in the first half, but the Gauchos forced the Anteaters to make clutch plays and free throws down the stretch before finally succumbing, 53-48.

Irvine led by 14 early in the second half, but the Gauchos (13-17) scratched their way back to within 49-48 with 19 seconds to play when Clayton Madden made one of two free throws. Anteater guard Chris Brown was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play and made both free throws.

Then Santa Barbara guard Phillip Turner drove the length of the floor and fired a bounce pass past Kyle Milling and out of bounds and Brown scored a layup on a long inbounds pass with four seconds remaining.

Only then was Mumford assured of having at least one more game during his college career. The Anteaters (8-19) play Utah State at 1 p.m. today in the quarterfinals. They split the season series with the Aggies, handing Utah State one of its two home losses and losing in Irvine in overtime.

“We were able to maintain the intensity that we usually just show flashes of,” Mumford said. “I guess it was the atmosphere and the situation here. We’re not a last-place team and we wanted to show it. And that positivity spread among our team.”

Brown led Irvine with 16 points.