Irvine Starts Anew in Knocking Off Utah State : Big West: Top-seeded Aggies fret playoff chances as Channell makes four key free throws in 76-72 win.

Long Beach State Coach Seth Greenberg plopped into a courtside chair on press row about five minutes into the second half of the UC Irvine-Utah State game Friday night and looked up at the scoreboard, which read: Irvine 49, Utah State 37.

“Must be March,” he said, smiling.

Last March, the 10th-seeded Anteaters won three consecutive Big West tournament games--just one fewer than they had won in the entire regular season--before losing in the championship game. Friday night, Irvine (13-15) upended the top-seeded Aggies, 76-72, in the quarterfinals while trying to recapture last year’s magic and take it one giant step beyond after another sub-par 6-12 conference record.

Khalid Channell made four free throws in the final 27 seconds and Utah State guard Corwin Woodard was called for traveling and missed a desperation 30-footer in the final five seconds.

The Anteaters meet Nevada, which defeated Pacific, 64-62, at 8 tonight in the semifinals.

“That was the best we’ve defended in three years,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said, “and as each minute went by, we got more confidence in our ability to defend. And even when our advantage started to slip away, we felt like we were in control.”

Once again, it was point guard Raimonds Miglinieks who was in control. He finished with 13 points and 12 assists and a list of intangibles.

“He’s an NBA player,” Utah State Coach Larry Eustachy said. “We had three different players rotating on him to try and wear him down, but he wore all three of them down instead. It was a man playing against youngsters.”

Irvine got the usual performances from Miglinieks and freshman-of-the-year Kevin Simmons (18 points, nine rebounds), but the Anteaters’ role players played huge roles in the victory over the Aggies (21-7), who now must sweat out Sunday’s NCAA tournament pairings.

Michael Tate played inspired defense against center Eric Franson, the Big West player of the year, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Channell came off the bench to score 20 points and grab eight rebounds and freshman Brian Keefe played tenacious defense against Woodard, who scored 16 points.

“Tate’s performance tonight was enormous,” Baker said. “He’s got so much heart this building isn’t big enough to hold it.”

The Anteaters, who also beat Utah State in the tournament quarterfinals last year, were excited afterward.

“This is when it’s really fun,” Baker said. “Sometimes you can take one game for granted in a 26-game season, but now if you don’t win today, you don’t play tomorrow. I love it.”