Irvine Surprises Early but Gets Blasted Late : College basketball: Anteaters wither under Arizona State’s unrelenting second-half pressure and collapse, 87-58.

Coach Rod Baker ran his finger down UC Irvine’s nonconference schedule before the season and pointed to games against Ohio University and Arizona State. “I think we’re good enough to play with all of these teams but maybe these two,” he said.

The Anteaters proved him wrong during a tough overtime loss to the 14th-ranked Bobcats Dec. 2. And they appeared ready to prove him wrong against the Sun Devils Saturday night.

Irvine (2-3) held a 47-42 lead over 13th-ranked Arizona State with 13:43 left, but then the Sun Devils discovered a new gear and ran away with an 87-58 victory before 6,249 at the University Activities Center.

It took Arizona State only four minutes to turn that five-point deficit into a 10-point lead with a 15-0 run. And the Sun Devils (5-1) were on cruise control only three minutes after that, holding a 69-51 advantage.

“I thought walking into the building tonight that we could play with these guys, but I guess we’re only good enough to play with them for 30 minutes,” Baker said. “The fact that we didn’t rebound in the second half is what killed us.

“But don’t get me wrong. They are a very, very good team. They are definitely going to hurt some people’s feelings in the Pac-10 this season.”

The Sun Devils’ full-court press caused 13 second-half turnovers. And their mastery of the boards after halftime--they outrebounded Irvine by 16 after the teams both had 21 in the first half--turned the contest from a potential upset into a laugher.

“We were so bad in the first half,” Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder said. “We hadn’t played in two weeks and when you don’t shoot well, you don’t play well.”

The Sun Devils, who entered the game with the second-best field-goal percentage (.567) in the country, made only 34% of their first-half shots from the floor.

But when Isaac Burton, who finished with a team-high 18 points, began to find the range outside, it opened things up for forward Mario Bennett, who scored 10 points in the second half and ended up with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Irvine, which had used a balanced attack to defeat its last two opponents, did not get a point from its leading scorer, point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, or its top-scoring inside threat, freshman forward Kevin Simmons.

“When your starting point guard and a starting forward don’t score a point, I don’t care who you are, you’re going to have trouble winning,” Baker said.

Miglinieks, who always looks to pass before shooting, had six assists but did not even attempt a field goal.

“If I don’t have a good shot, I’m not going to shoot,” said Miglinieks, who had 828 assists in two years at Riverside City College. “We were taking our shots too fast.

“We played good for awhile, but you have to play all 40 minutes. If you can’t play for 40 minutes, then just go off the court.”