First Place Slips Away From Irvine

UC Irvine lost its grasp on the ball and first place Monday night.

Twice in the final 40 seconds, Anteater possessions ended in turnovers and when Kevin Simmons’ 20-foot attempt at a tie with three seconds left hit the rim and bounded off, ninth-place Nevada Las Vegas had bounced Irvine out of first in the Big West Conference with a 63-60 victory in front of 7,855 in the Thomas & Mack Center.

“We just couldn’t squeeze the ball tonight,” an obviously irate Irvine Coach Rod Baker said.

Baker was more upset with the first half than the final few seconds, though. UNLV jumped out to a 10-point lead by halftime.

“I thought we were a tad complacent, which is difficult to understand,” Baker said. “We talked at halftime about having a little pride in being the first-place team.”

It’s a problem the Anteaters, 13-9 overall and 9-5 in the Big West, won’t have to worry about for a few days. Idle Long Beach State takes over first with a 10-5 record.

Trailing by two points with 40 seconds left in the game, Irvine’s Raimonds Miglinieks drove the baseline and fired a pass under the basket to Dan Augulis. Augulis dropped the ball, grabbed it, then lost it again in a battle with teammate Michael Tate. The Anteaters’ Paul Foster got it, but the ball slipped out of his hands as he tried to go up for a shot.

Las Vegas (9-14, 6-9) got the rebound and guard Kevin James missed the front end of a one-and-one situation. Then Miglinieks’ pass into Foster was tipped away by Warren Rosegreen, James ended up with it, was fouled again and made one free throw to give the Rebels the margin of victory.

The Anteaters had 18 turnovers, UNLV had only three.

Rosegreen led UNLV with 17 points. Simmons and Brian Keefe each had 14 for Irvine.