UC Irvine Fights Back to Beat Pepperdine

After a couple of hard-fought losses to Oklahoma and 14th-ranked Ohio, UC Irvine appeared to be headed toward an easy victory over a young Pepperdine team early in the first half Saturday night.

But while the Anteaters may be improved, they clearly are a long way from being a steamroller.

Irvine let a 26-16 lead evaporate and trailed by as many as eight in the second half before a late rally carried the Anteaters to a 75-68 victory in the consolation game of the Hawkeye Invitational in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“I’m not sure that when we got to 26-16 we didn’t start thinking the game was over,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “But we have to understand that people want to win just as badly as we do.”

The Anteaters (1-2) continued to exhibit solid defense, strong rebounding and poor shooting. They overcame a 38% effort from the field and a 63% performance at the free-throw line with a balanced attack; five players had nine or more points.

Baker is becoming less reluctant to go to his bench with each game, and Saturday night he was substituting freely. Ten Anteaters played 11 or more minutes, and no one played more than 28.

“We got a lot of good minutes from a lot of guys,” Baker said. “I’m beginning to believe our depth is the strength of this team, and tonight everybody got a chance.”

Senior guard Chris Brown, the nation’s top three-point shooter last season, did almost as much sitting as shooting, a most uncommon position for him. Brown made two three-pointers in the first 3 1/2 minutes, but then appeared to lose his focus after complaining about the absence of a call when he thought he was fouled on a layup attempt.

Baker put him on the bench to “unwind.”

“Chris’ level of excitability is directly related to his inability to make his shots,” Baker said. “He needed to watch the game a little bit. He was too wound up.”

The tactic apparently worked. Brown made a three with four minutes to play to put Irvine ahead for good, then buried another a minute later that gave the Anteaters a 71-66 advantage. He finished with a team-high 17 points after making only five of 14 shots from the field.

“I thought we got cheated on a couple of calls (during the overtime loss to Ohio), and I was afraid it was going to happen again,” Brown said. “I guess I lost my concentration.

“Coach took me out because I was rushing my game, pressing instead of letting my shots come to me. I’m just not very consistent with my shot right now and I just want to get the feel back. But once I realized he was going to keep me out, I told myself I had to slow down and relax.”

Pepperdine Coach Tony Fuller thought some of his players were a little too relaxed. He was also upset with the Waves’ (1-3) interior play and rebounding. Irvine won the battle of the boards, 50-36, and Anteater forward Michael Tate had 10 rebounds in the first half.

“We’re the kind of team that needs a total team effort, and if we have a couple of guys who don’t come to play, it’s very hard for us to win,” said Fuller, who declined to name names. “(Forward) Kirk Goehring came off the bench to give us a spark, but we had no inside game, they hit the big shots and we didn’t.”

Irvine may have hit the big shots, but they missed a lot of the other ones. The Anteaters’ perimeter shooters--Brown, Mark Odsather and Brian Keefe--continued to struggle. They were a combined 10 of 32 from the floor.

“I think it’s a pretty good sign that we haven’t had a good outside game, but we still found other ways to get it done,” Odsather said.

Irvine point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, who was in tears after Friday night’s loss, was smiling after this one. He was the only Anteater starter who shot 50% or better from the field, hitting five of seven field goals, including two of three three pointers. He was named to the all-tournament team.