Anteaters Shoot 35% but Win Easily

The Big West, which struggled in its attempt to gain respect during the nonconference season, got no help during the conference opener between UC Irvine and University of the Pacific Tuesday night.

There was a whole lot of bangin’, bumpin’ and brickin’ goin’ on, but not much in the way of basketball. At times, it appeared as if the game was being played inside a pinball machine, with the ball and players caroming around off each other.

How ugly was it? Irvine shot 35% from the floor and won going away, 72-54, in front of 1,189 at the Bren Center.

“The only thing uglier than this game would be me in a Speedo,” Pacific’s trainer Chris Pond said.

Fifty-one fouls were called, 32 on the Tigers. Pacific, which shot 27% from the field in the second half, was only a single percentage point better from the free-throw line. Nine minutes into the second half, the Tigers (4-5) had made one field goal and two free throws. But Irvine (4-4) managed only to turn a five-point halftime advantage into a 46-35 lead.

“It was bad from the very beginning when Rayne [Mahaffey] missed that layup to start the game. And it was all downhill from there,” Pacific Coach Bob Thomason said. “They have three of the top 15 players in the conference and we don’t have three players who can come close to doing what they did.”

Irvine’s big three--sophomore forward Kevin Simmons, senior point guard Raimonds Miglinieks and sophomore guard Brian Keefe--combined for 48 points.

Simmons, back from a one-game suspension for breaking a team rule, had game highs in points (24) and rebounds (15). His 15 rebounds also was a career high. Miglinieks, the only player on the floor who seemed capable of making two free throws in a row, was 11 of 14 from the line. He scored 13 points, had nine assists and seven rebounds. Keefe had 11 points.

“It was not a nice game for the spectators,” Miglinieks said, smiling, “but it was a huge win for us.”

Anteater Coach Rod Baker, who watched his team stumble to an 0-6 start in the Big West last year and had not seen a regular-season victory over the Tigers in his previous four seasons at Irvine, could not have agreed more.

“This isn’t diving,” he said. “There are no style points. The game never got into a flow, there was never more than one or two possessions without a whistle. But you have to learn to play through a game like this. Bottom line is we held them to 54 points and that’s the reason we won.”

To hear the Anteaters tell it--especially Miglinieks, a marked man by every opponent--the Tigers were called for about half of the fouls they committed.

“It was a very physical game,” Miglinieks said. “They were pushing me all over the place in the beginning. We had to just stop complaining and deal with it.”

The Tigers, however, were singing a different tune. “I don’t want to use it as an excuse, but I’ve never seen so many ticky-tack fouls called,” said Pacific’s Charles Jones, who had 17 points.

Simmons, who was four of four from beyond the three-point arc Tuesday, had yet another spin on the matter.

Not only did the game remind him of the ultimate in macho basketball, he also saw it as a thing of beauty.

“That was a New York Knicks’ win, man,” he said. “That was defense. That was beautiful.”