Anteaters Show a Little Life

Hold the autopsy. We have a pulse.

It wasn’t pretty, or even plain-looking. Nor was it decisive. It was, though, what UC Irvine needed.

The Anteaters scraped together enough of an effort for a 59-53 victory over Pacific Saturday in front of 2,442 in the Bren Center. Phew doesn’t begin to cover it.

It wasn’t so much that Irvine ended a seven-game losing streak against Pacific. Or that the Anteaters halted a four-game Big West losing steak. Or even that Coach Pat Douglass picked up his 400th collegiate victory--376 at Division II and 24 at Irvine in two-plus seasons.

It was much simpler than that.

“This was a step forward,” forward Marek Ondera said.

With it, Irvine (9-10, 2-6) crawled out of last place in the Big West Western Division and moved to within one game of a conference tournament spot--which may say a lot about the conference.

Jerry Green scored 14 points and Ben Jones had 13. There were even moments of offensive life from Irvine’s centers, J.R. Christ and Greg Ethington.

The defense did the rest, holding Pacific scoreless for a seven-minute stretch in the second half.

“It is good to put forth that effort and get a win,” Douglass said.

And an effort is what it took.

Irvine had one field goal in the last 9 minutes 34 seconds--and that one basket, a dunk by Green, resulted in a technical foul for hanging on the rim with 33 seconds left. The Anteaters, though, gritted it out.

“To be honest, this is what I expect,” Ondera said. “I expect to win. Hopefully, this will start us in the right direction.”

The game may have turned on Ondera’s defense.

Irvine led, 48-41, with 2:38 left when Pacific’s Barry Marvel posted up Ondera and leaned for a shot. The ball went in. Ondera went down. The official called an offensive foul.

Irvine made nine of 13 free throws from that point.

“We came in wanting to compete for the entire 40 minutes,” Green said. “We played the whole 40 minutes.”

And spent just enough of it playing offense.

Irvine had made only two of its first 16 shots when Jones hit three three-pointers during a 17-4 run for a 21-15 lead. He had 12 points in the first half.

Green had 10 first-half points, five in the last 45 seconds. He hit an NBA-distance three-pointer, then went coast-to-coast for a spinning eight-foot jumper for a 31-25 halftime lead.

Irvine also got six points and eight rebounds from Ethington and another six points from Christ. Those two had combined for 20 points in seven previous conference games.

The Anteaters survived on defense in the second half.

Peter Heizer’s layup cut Irvine’s lead to 43-39 with 10:57 left. Pacific (9-11, 4-4) didn’t score again until Clay McKnight’s two free throws with 3:38 left.