COLLEGE BASKETBALL / BIG WEST TOURNAMENT : Irvine Finds Itself in Unlikely Spot

UC Irvine, presented with another postseason opportunity for redemption after a regular season of disappointment and dismay, seized the day again Friday.

The Anteaters, who stumbled, staggered and succumbed en route to a last-place finish in the Big West, earned a spot in the conference tournament semifinals with a 78-68 victory over second-seeded Utah State in the Thomas & Mack Center. Irvine (9-19) will meet Pacific (17-13) tonight at 6.

Irvine trailed by 11 points with 17 1/2 minutes to play, but rallied behind the outside shooting of guard Chris Brown and an inspired defense that forced 22 Utah State turnovers. The junior guard scored Irvine’s first 13 points of the second half--including three three-pointers in the first 6 1/2 minutes--and 19 of his 26 points after the intermission.

“In my 20 years in this game, I’ve been around some good shooters, but no one, hands down, shoots the ball like Chris day in and day out,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said.

Baker has built his program around a belly-to-belly man-to-man defense, but the Anteaters employed nothing but zone in the second half. They held 7-footer Nate Wickizer to four points in the game and guard Corwin Woodard, who had 24 in the first half, to seven in the second.

“I’m not the kind of coach who refuses to give the other team credit,” Utah State Coach Larry Eustachy said. “And I can’t help but feel happy for Rod because they’ve had more than their share of adversity. And there’s no doubt the tougher team won today.”

Senior point guard Lloyd Mumford managed to rally his teammates from a 38-30 halftime deficit.

“I was sitting in there at halftime thinking about the possibility of this being my last game,” Mumford said, “and I looked at the faces of my teammates and saw that they were depending on me.”

Mumford, who scored 26 points and had seven assists, responded by making a driving layup and five of six free throws in the final 1:04 as Irvine turned a four-point advantage into a runaway victory with help from Eustachy, who drew his second technical of the game with eight seconds to play.

After the game, the Irvine locker room was subdued.

“We’re happy, but you can see in the guys’ eyes that we’re thinking about the future,” Mumford said. “We’ve come together as a team and we’re doing things we haven’t done in a long time.”

New Mexico State 66, Nevada 67--Johnny Selvie’s dunk with 23 seconds left gave the top-seeded Aggies (21-7) the victory in overtime. The Aggies will play the winner of Nevada Las Vegas-San Jose State in the semifinals at tonight.