Victory Gives UC Irvine Berth in Tournament

Lulled into a false sense of security, faced with a true moment of urgency, UC Irvine managed to come up with the right answers.

Jason Flowers and Andrew Carlson.

The immediate reward from the Anteaters’ 64-58 victory over UC Santa Barbara Thursday is a trip next week’s Big West Conference tournament in Reno next week. The bonus was showing the intestinal fortitude to hold off a crushing charge by the Gauchos, who rallied from a 14-point deficit to take a 54-53 lead with 2 minutes 56 seconds left.

But some of the 1,130 in the Thunderdome were left chanting “over-rated, over-rated” at their own team--Santa Barbara (7-18, 4-11) was picked to finish second in the Western Division--after the Anteaters reeled off nine consecutive points.

“I could feel things slipping away, like they did all last season,” said Carlson, who had a career-high 12 points. “We couldn’t let that happen.”

Flowers made two free throws to give Irvine a 56-55 lead with 1:51 left. Carlson then banked in a eight-foot jumper to make it 58-55. Irvine (9-16, 6-9) made nine of 10 free throws in the last two minutes. Flowers (12 points) was six of six, and was feeling almost giddy afterward.

“Anything can happen once we get to Reno,” said Flowers, who played with a sprained left ankle.

What will probably happen is Irvine will lose. But you can dream, can’t you? After all, no one but the Anteaters envisioned their appearance in the tournament after going 1-25 last season.

“We were picked to finish last, by a substantial margin,” Coach Pat Douglass said. “What this shows is how much we have improved and how hard we have played. Our goal was to make the tournament and we made it.”

Said forward Adam Stetson: “We knew how important this one game was.”

And they almost let it get away.

Ben Jones’ jump shot gave Irvine a 49-35 lead with 11:16 left. The Gauchos then went on a 19-4 run, fueled by Raymond Tutt, who scored nine of his 26 points in that span.

The Anteaters helped out. They turned over the ball eight times in 13 possessions. When Josh Merrill made one of two free throws, the Gauchos had a 54-53 lead.

“We’re not in a double-digit lead situation too often,” Douglass said. “We didn’t know what to do.”

Flowers and Carlson finally came up with the answer. Not too surprising, as they had both hurt the Gauchos in the second half.

“Andrew came up big for us inside,” Douglass said. “Jason hit some big shots right at the start of the second half that got off the schnide.”

Irvine shot 63% in the second half.

Flowers was scoreless in the first half, but hit two three-pointers early in the second half.

“I felt I owed it to my teammates to do something in the second half,” Flowers said. “It didn’t matter if it was scoring or defense.”

Carlson, who was averaging 3.6 points, made a similar commitment. He scored eight points in the first eight minutes of the second half, then missed five minutes after suffering a sprained ankle. Carlson made six of nine shots.

“I hit a couple shots and my confidence went way up,” Carlson said.

He also helped on the boards, with a team-high six rebounds. The Gauchos had a 49-24 rebound advantage, with 21 offensive rebounds, in a victory over Irvine last month. The Anteaters had a 35-29 rebound edge Thursday and limited the Gauchos to eight offensive rebounds.