Irvine Breaks Bad Habit at Good Time : Basketball: Lead dwindles, but Anteaters hold on for 53-48 victory over Santa Barbara at Big West Tournament.

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 fan in the Thomas & Mack Center Thursday afternoon.

UC Santa Barbara did its best to hand the Anteaters a run-away victory in the opening game of the Big West Tournament, but--staying true to their season-long form 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 some 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 scratched their way back to within 49-48 with 19 seconds left 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 in 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 conference losses at home 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.”

Meanwhile, the inability to make the ball go through the ring was spreading negativity throughout the Gaucho ranks.

“Confidence is a very fleeting thing,” Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm said, “and we obviously had some anxiety creeping in. It was a nightmare. It’s not easy to sit there and watch a team that was shooting 48% in conference go through that.

“But it doesn’t do any good for me to butt heads with a player. My approach is to remain calm and patient. It’s been Irvine’s pattern to have some dry spells and we were counting on it in the second half.”

The Anteaters, who held a nine-point lead over the Gauchos at halftime March 3 but 15 minutes later trailed by 20 points, obliged again. Santa Barbara outscored Irvine, 13-2, in a five-minute stretch midway through the second half and appeared poised to beat the Anteaters despite woeful shooting.

“It was a typical win for us,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said, unable to keep from smiling. “Of course we haven’t had many wins, but this was typical. We played pretty well, then relaxed to make it more competitive and then made some plays down the stretch.”

The Not-So-Fabulous Baker Boys should have led by at least 30 at the intermission, but they only shot 39% and had 12 turnovers in the first half to manage a 26-14 advantage.

Was Baker discouraged his team had failed to take advantage of Santa Barbara’s inept shooting?

“If you had seen us play this year, you would know I’m never unhappy when we’re up,” he said. “The thing is we played at the level (of intensity) that we’re supposed to play at. I beat these guys all week in practice and I think they’re excited about this tournament. We want to stay here all weekend and we want to be on the floor, not watching.”

Of course the Gauchos, who ended the season with a 13-17 record, Pimm’s worst in 13 seasons at the school, harbored the same lofty goal. But it was bound to end on a day when their top three scorers in Big West play--Doug Muse, Turner and Mark Flick--were a combined eight of 37 from the floor.

Irvine had only one player in double figures. Brown, who made three of eight three pointers, finished with a game-high 16 points.