Irvine Starts Fast, Fades Fast Before Finishing Strong

UC Irvine followed its best first half of the season with a significant lull Saturday night, but the Anteaters recovered in time to beat Northern Arizona, 68-54, in front of 1,602 at the Bren Center.

Irvine shot a season-best 63% in opening half and led, 39-27, but quickly returned to a more typical struggling form to start the second half.

“We played a phenomenal first half.” UC Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “That’s as good as we’ve played this season. But we lost our intensity for a period of time.”

Early in second half, UC Irvine started to look a lot like the underclassman-dominated team that turned it over 33 times Monday in a 68-54 loss to Portland.

The Anteaters (2-3) gave the ball away on five consecutive possessions at one point as Northern Arizona (4-3) closed in.

UC Irvine freshman point guard Jerry Green scored the last basket of the first half on a nice drive--a quick dribble between the legs, then a short jumper--with two seconds left. He then scored the Anteaters’ first basket of the second half, a 12-foot jumper that gave Irvine a 41-27 lead.

But the Irvine offense wilted as Northern Arizona increased its defensive pressure dramatically. Once-crisp passes became slow and easily knocked away or stolen. Douglass countered by going with a smaller, quicker lineup that finally turned things around near the end.

“We were tired,” Green said, “and mentally we were out of it.”

The Lumberjacks got as close as 53-49 on two free throws by senior center Casey Frank (12 points, eight rebounds) with 3 minutes 14 seconds left. But Irvine recovered, thanks to the play of Green and sophomore guard Jason Flowers, who entered the game as part of the quicker lineup.

Flowers made a three-pointer from the right corner for a 56-49 lead with 2:38 to play then the twosome alternated making 12 free throws--six each--as the Anteaters pulled away.

Northern Arizona didn’t score again until senior guard Kawika Akina made a three-pointer with 1:30 left to play.

There was a simple reason for Irvine’s late resurgence, according to Green, who finished with a season-high 24 points and had 10 rebounds. “Coach got on us [during a timeout],” he said. “Coach just wanted us to run our plays and settle down. We had to learn from the Portland game just to be more aggressive.

“I’m the point guard and I have to run the team, I have to be the leader.”

The Anteaters scored the first nine points of the game, on two three-pointers by freshman guard Zamiro Bennem and a jumper from Green.

“We had three great practices,” said sophomore forward Ben Jones, who had team-high six assists. “We had a purpose, we knew we had to get better and it carried over into the game.”

Douglass said turnovers were not mentioned more than usual in practice because they are as much a result of the inexperience of his team as anything else.

Free-throw shooting was clearly part of the daily drills, though.

The Anteaters made 14 of 16 in the second half and 17 of 23 (74%) in the game. They came in shooting 54%.

Flowers finished with nine points, all in the final 2:38. Junior forward Marek Ondera added 10 for UC Irvine, which made only six of 21 shots from the field in the second half but still finished at 47% (21 of 45) for the game.

“We had a good week of practice and this will really help our confidence and give us purpose for later games,” Douglass said.

Good thing. The Anteaters’ next game is Dec. 14 at Arizona.