Irvine’s Zone Key to Victory

How do you turn around a season on the brink of disaster? For UC Irvine, it’s been as easy as two-three.

The Anteaters were 0-6 in the Big West before they “discovered” the 2-3 zone. You know, that defense your favorite high school team plays all the time, the one with three guys underneath the basket along the baseline and two on the ends of the free-throw line.

Simple? Yes.

And, for Irvine, very effective.

The Anteaters unveiled the defense after one day of practice and played it the entire game to beat San Jose State last Sunday. They used it the entire game against Long Beach State Thursday night and beat the 49ers at home for the first time in seven years. And Saturday, they played it all night with the exception of two possessions and made it three in a row with a 62-58 victory over UC Santa Barbara before 2,918 in the Bren Center.

The Gauchos (9-7, 4-4), who had won all eight games they played in the Bren Center since it opened in 1987, hit three of their first five three-pointers over the zone and led, 13-7. But Irvine Coach Rod Baker wasn’t considering a return to the man-to-man defense.

“It’s a long game,” he said, “and we’re not going to shut anybody out playing zone. Maybe if they had gone up, 10-0, or something. But we were scoring too, and I think we were playing the zone pretty well. They just made a couple of shots.”

Baker’s new-found belief in the zone paid off. Santa Barbara managed to make only five of its next 24 three-point shots and the Anteaters, after building an 18-point lead midway through the second half, held on to improve their record to 7-9, 3-6 in conference.

“I think the zone has really helped us,” said Baker, who has always been a staunch proponent of man-to-man defense. “We’ve played it three times and won all three. I think it allows us to be a little fresher.”

The Anteaters didn’t look too fresh down the stretch, however. They seemed to be concentrating more on running the 35-second clock down to the final ticks than getting a good shot.

“We played pretty good tonight but we didn’t get very good motion near the end,” said point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, who led Irvine with 15 points and five assists. “We worried too much about trying to run the clock.”

Irvine led, 51-33, with eight minutes 57 seconds left after reserve Khalid Channell, who had 10 points and five rebounds, scored on a leaning seven-foot bank shot. But the Gauchos hit three three-pointers and a couple of free throws and were back in the game, trailing by only four, 59-55, with 59 seconds remaining.

Channell put up a 16-foot jumper with time running down on the 35-second clock again and senior Mark Odsather, who had missed a handful of layups in the past two games, made a flying tip-in with 25.5 seconds left to seal the victory.

“We were just settling for shots,” Baker said. “We didn’t turn up any (good) shots and if you don’t get good shots, you’re not going to make many.”

The Anteaters were turning up the shots and the tempo in the first half and they outscored the Gauchos, 20-2, during a 10-minute stretch. The run was a combination of good offense and effective defense. Santa Barbara went more than 10 minutes without scoring a basket.

Miglinieks, who hasn’t shaved since the Anteaters beat the Spartans to begin their three-game winning streak, isn’t so sure the zone is the key to the Anteaters’ recent success.

“Hey,” he said, smiling, “this beard is 3-0.”