Big Is the Word for Irvine Victory

It was a big win, although UC Irvine Coach Pat Douglass wouldn’t go quite that far when he was asked to define the moment.

“Significant,” he said of the Anteaters’ 56-52 victory over California at the Bren Center Saturday night, the first time Irvine has defeated a Pacific 10 Conference team since 1994.

Without question, though, it was the most important victory for the Anteaters since Douglass arrived at Irvine from Cal State Bakersfield four years ago.

Just ask his players, or the announced crowd of 4,904, largest since 1996. When the game ended, fans swarmed over barriers and onto the court to mob the Anteaters.

“It was a big win for us. Huge,” said Cal transfer Sean Jackson, who hit four of six three-point attempts and finished with 13 points and six rebounds for Irvine. “To do this in front of all those people. I think we are moving in the direction we need to.”

Three days earlier, when Irvine lost, 63-60, to San Diego, those weren’t the feelings at all, but wins like this make people forget.

“In the San Diego game we didn’t play well down the stretch,” said senior forward Ben Jones, who led all players with 19 points. “But here they played well down the stretch and we played well down the stretch. I think we are progressing.”

Reserve center Adam Parada had four points and six key rebounds in 16 minutes of play, while reserve forward J.R. Christ, who had five points, got above the rim several times to grab his team-high eight rebounds.

This was Irvine’s first victory against a Pac-10 team since an 89-73 win over Oregon State in 1994. It was only the third time since 1990 that an Irvine team has beaten a Pac-10 team. Two of those came against the Bears, who do not appear to be progressing at all.

“We looked terrible tonight,” said former Santa Margarita High forward Ryan Forehan-Kelly, who got six points in a rare start for Cal.

Guard Shantay Legans scored 16 and forward Sean Lampley scored 12 and had nine rebounds for Cal (1-3), which has a three-game losing streak overall and has lost seven consecutive games on the road.

Irvine scored nine unanswered points to take a 48-36 lead with 8 minutes 25 seconds to play.

Cal rallied, getting to within 52-51 with 2:49 to go on a driving layup by Legans.

But Irvine used a free throw from Christ, two free throws by guard Jerry Green and another from Christ to seal the victory.

“Irvine played its heart out tonight,” Legans said. “I give them full credit. We need to regroup.”