Irvine’s Baker Gets 100th Victory : College basketball: Channell makes key play as Anteaters defeat St. Mary’s, 69-66.

Rod Baker would be the first to tell you it was too long in coming and it was no work of art, but his 100th victory as a head coach will provide UC Irvine with a happy Christmas and its first winning record going into January in seven years.

The Anteaters improved to 4-3 with a 69-66 nonconference victory over St. Mary’s in front of 1,846 in Irvine’s Bren Center on Friday night.

“It was not very nice how we did it,” point guard Raimonds Miglinieks mused, “but we played hard and, you know how they say a ‘W’ is a ‘W.’ ”

Clearly, it was an ugly game, one littered with missed layups, free throws and opportunities and bodies strewn on the floor. But it was the kind of game Anteater fans are used to seeing slip away.

“Last year, we would have given up,” forward Mark Odsather said, “but this is a different team. We have confidence that we’re going to find a way to win so we’re finding ways to get it done.”

Irvine trailed by six after a little more than a minute and led by as much as five early in the second half, but a basket or two was all that separated the teams for the rest of the night.

St. Mary’s (4-4) had a 63-60 lead with two minutes remaining. Miglinieks made one of two free throws and then Gael forward Brent Farris was called for traveling on a fast break. Freshman forward Kevin Simmons was fouled while attempting a dunk and made both free throws to tie the game.

With just more than a minute to play, Farris was called for traveling again, this time working for a shot underneath. Miglinieks then beat a double team and passed to Michael Tate at the top of the key. Tate fed Khalid Channell, who slammed it home, was fouled and sank the free throw to put the Anteaters ahead, 66-63.

Zuri Williams made one of two free throws and then St. Mary’s Chris Johnson hit a three-pointer with 15.8 seconds left. But Chris Brown made two free throws and Johnson’s desperation three-point fling at the buzzer hit halfway up the backboard and bounded away.

“St. Mary’s did a good job defensively and we had to make some adjustments at halftime,” Baker said. “We rebounded well and defended pretty well. They only scored six points in the last 4 1/2 minutes. And if we had done a better job against some of the easy baskets we gave them, it would have been over early.”