UC Irvine Shows Some Signs of Promise in Latest Loss

This, in some ways, was progress for UC Irvine. And that, in some ways, is what smarts.

The University of San Diego got Irvine down early in a 70-49 victory Monday in front of 939 in the Bren Center. It wasn’t a complete fiasco and Irvine left with a few positives.

The Anteaters (0-7), who have lost 10 consecutive games dating to last season, cut their turnovers to 16, eight below their season average. Irvine even rallied from a 38-21 halftime deficit, cutting the Torero lead to nine with 16 minutes left before fading.

Yet these meager gains seemed lost to the Anteater players, who looked at the big picture and gave themselves a thumbs down.

“It’s like we play when we want to and the other times we’re just out there,” freshman forward Brian Johnson said.

“I don’t feel kind of good at all. I wanted to go home [for Christmas] with one win for my friends and family.”

Johnson might be in for some post-holiday depression as well.

Irvine plays ninth-ranked Utah Saturday and then travels to University of San Francisco. The Anteaters follow that by beginning Big West Conference play against Pacific and Long Beach State, two of the conference’s better teams.

Is 0-11 too much of a stretch?

“We still haven’t played well enough to win,” Coach Rod Baker said. “Until we do that, there will be some concern.”

Irvine has been mediocre to pitiful this season and the Anteaters covered that entire range Monday.

San Diego (5-4) jumped to a 12-1 lead. Irvine didn’t score its first field goal until Johnson’s 15-foot jumper with 14:35 left in the half. The Anteaters turned the ball over on five of their first eight possessions.

“We seem complacent,” point guard Lamarr Parker said. “We seem happy with just being out there instead of wanting to kill the other team. We don’t go after people enough. We need to want to kill the other team.”

Irvine showed signs of life only once. A steal and dunk by Johnson (11 points) capped a 6-0 run that cut the Torero lead to 38-29 early in the second half.

Then came another vanishing act. Phil Negrete’s layup brought the Anteaters back to within nine, 40-31, with 16:37 left. They didn’t score again for six minutes.

By then, Brian Bruso and Sean Flannery had sparked a 13-0 run for a 53-31 lead.

Flannery finished with 16 points and made four of seven three-pointers. Bruso and Brock Jacobsen scored 10 points for the Toreros. Jacobsen was shutout in the second half--yet another small victory for the Anteaters.

“We played better in the second half and continued to compete,” Baker said. “We just have to continue to play hard and play aggressive and not worry about making mistakes.”

There were plenty of other things to fret about.

Irvine shot 33% and made only five of 20 shots in the first half. The Anteaters also shot 18 free throws in the first half. Normally this is a good thing for a team. But Irvine entered the game shooting 57% on foul shots and made only 10 in the first half.

The Anteaters were without guard Juma Jackson, the team’s third-leading scorer who sat out because of a concussion suffered in Saturday’s game against Cal State Northridge.

But there is a bottom line.

Said Johnson: “I don’t like going out and losing every night.”