Irvine Fades Away in Overtime : College basketball: Anteaters play No. 14 Ohio U. tough for 40 minutes, then lose, 81-72.

There are a couple of ways to look at UC Irvine’s 81-72 overtime loss to 14th-ranked Ohio University in the first round of the Hawkeye Invitational on Friday night.

There’s Irvine forward Mark Odsather’s spin: “That’s a team that just lost at third-ranked Kentucky by four points, and we took them into overtime. This proves we can play with the best teams in the country.”

And then there’s Coach Rod Baker’s view: “There’s no column for moral victories. There are wins and losses and in some sports ties, but there’s no moral victories. We had a two-point lead with six seconds to go. So what? Who cares?”

The Anteaters (0-2) led by nine at halftime, fell behind by four midway through the second half and then had two chances to put the game away in the final 28.7 seconds. But first point guard Raimonds Miglinieks and then freshman forward Kevin Simmons were too strong on the first free throw of one-and-one situations.

After Miglinieks missed, Ohio (5-1) rebounded and guard Geno Ford went for the victory. His three-point attempt was long and Miglinieks, who led the Anteaters with 17 points and five assists, ended up with the rebound. He passed to Simmons, who passed to guard Chris Brown, who hit Simmons under the basket. Simmons was fouled by Jeff Boals before he could attempt a shot.

“I just wasn’t concentrating, I guess,” Simmons said of the missed free throw. “I guess I was thinking that there was only six seconds left and we were up.”

After Simmons’ errant free throw, the Bobcats worked the ball under to Gary Trent, who scored on a short bank shot at the buzzer.

“Big-time players make big-time plays,” Baker said.

With the Anteaters emotionally deflated, the Bobcats dominated the overtime.

“We played a great 40 minutes,” Brown said, “but after they tied it up, it seemed like everyone thought we had lost. We were completely out of sync in overtime, we did none of the things that we had done during regulation.”

Trent had only four points at halftime. But he scored 10 in overtime and finished by matching his season average with 25 points and 14 rebounds.