Anteaters Are Thrown for Record Loss

Playing in his final home game, Southern Utah senior center Don Faux hit his first seven shots to help the Thunderbirds coast to a 76-65 victory over UC Irvine Tuesday night.

Irvine (1-23) tied a school record for losses. The previous record was set in the 1989-90 season when the Anteaters went 5-23.

UCI made three consecutive second-half three-pointers--the first by Phil Negrete and two by Lamarr Parker--to cut the deficit to 13 points with six minutes 42 seconds remaining. Another basket from Parker pulled the Anteaters to within 10, 72-62, with 2:06 left.

From that point, however, Southern Utah (9-16), which recorded only its third victory this season over a Division I team, made four free throws and Mark Schweigert made an 18-footer to keep the game out of reach. Schweigert, a senior, finished with 24 points.

The Anteaters were frustrated by the Thunderbirds’ rare 1-1-3 matchup zone in the first half. It was only the second time this season that Southern Utah ran the trapping half-court defense, which created 13 first-half turnovers and held Irvine to 20% shooting in the first 20 minutes.

Southern Utah’s lead grew to 27 when Schweigert made his third three-pointer of the half with 4:05 remaining. Irvine scored five unanswered points, but trailed, 46-22, at the half.

A more aggressive Anteater defense slowed down Southern Utah in the second half. The Anteaters guarded the perimeter, limited Schweigert to one three-pointer and kept the rest of the Southern Utah team scoreless.

Andrew Carlson stepped up the post defense to shut down Faux in the second half. The 6-foot-10 freshman had three blocks. Faux finished with 17 points, but had only three in the second half.

“We just played harder in the second half,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said.

Irvine also played better on offense in the second half, attacking the Thunderbirds inside and hitting 57% from the field. The inside game opened up the opportunities outside where Irvine hit five of nine from behind the three-point line.

“We wanted to attack the baseline on offense,” said Baker. “We knew that once we had it in there we could be successful. In the first half we got the ball to the baseline, but we didn’t score. We did a better job of scoring in the second half.”