More Time, and Mumford Might Have Cut Down Nets : Basketball: Irvine senior, who had 12 points and 10 assists in his final game, laments close loss.

It was the most painful of reality checks for UC Irvine point guard Lloyd Mumford.

He established himself as a big-time tournament player in Vegas, with his twisting drives, clutch shots, crisp, pin-point passes and sweet ballhandling. But now Mumford’s college career and Irvine’s surprising run through the Big West Tournament were over.

Mumford and the 10th-seeded Anteaters were left watching top-seeded New Mexico State celebrate a 70-64 victory, and an automatic berth into the NCAA basketball tournament, Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

It could have been the Anteaters, who entered the conference tournament with a 7-19 record and a last-place finish in the regular season.

It could have been the Anteaters making their first trip to the NCAA tournament.

And it could have been Mumford playing one more game, extending his senior season one more week.

Instead, it’s over.

“It hurts,” said Mumford, who finished with 12 points and 10 assists. “A couple of missed foul shots and 10 or 15 more seconds and we could have been going to the big dance instead of them.

“That’s the worst thing about this is that we know we could have been the ones going.”

That thought haunted Mumford and his teammates as they watched New Mexico State players cut down the nets. Irvine’s frustrating 10-20 season had come to an end, and for Mumford and fellow seniors DeForrest Boyer and Joe Hannon, so did a college career.

As the Aggies carried off the championship trophy, Mumford left the arena with a travel bag hanging from his shoulder, a consolation prize for making the all-tournament team with Anteater junior Chris Brown, who scored 33 points, all on three-pointers, in the finals.

“Seeing them cut down the nets and get the trophy was a big deal to us,” said Brown, who was named the tournament’s co-MVP with New Mexico State’s James Dockery. “I hate to think about it, that it could have been me up there cutting it down.”

It was a discouraging moment for Brown, a transfer from Bakersfield College and one of three starters expected back next season. But he thinks the Anteaters’ surprising run through the tournament gives them something to build on next season.

Irvine upset seventh-seeded UC Santa Barbara (53-48), second-seeded Utah State (78-68) and sixth-seeded Pacific (82-78) to earn its first appearance in the conference finals since 1988.

“This tournament meant the world to us,” said Mumford, who averaged 18.2 points in the tournament, including totals of 29 against Pacific and 26 against Utah State. “It felt great for us to go out and do things that people never thought we could do.

“I hadn’t played on a team that has won three in a row in I don’t know how long.”

It could have been four in a row, but the Anteaters tired in the final minutes and the Aggies, who shot only 56% from the free-throw line during the regular season, made eight of their final 12.

Brown tied it, 62-62, on a three-pointer with 2 minutes 39 seconds left, but the Aggies scored eight of the game’s next 10 points, all on free throws, to pull away.

“I don’t think fatigue was a factor,” said Brown, who played 39 minutes and made 11 of 21 three-pointers over New Mexico State’s zone defense. “We were more pumped up for this game than any other. We were in the frame of mind that we were going to the NCAA tournament.”

Instead, the Anteaters watched as the Aggie players, one by one, climbed the ladder and cut the net. Irvine Coach Rod Baker gathered his players around him during the celebration, and pointed down the court.

“He us not to hang our heads and to look down there at them,” Brown said, “He told as that someday, we could be cutting down the nets, too.”