Loss Leaves Anteaters With No Answers

There were only grim faces outside the UC Irvine locker room Thursday night.

A little weary, somewhat bewildered, the Anteaters couldn’t quite put their finger on all the “whys” following a 67-63 loss to Nevada in a Big West Conference opener.

Why did they start so poorly? Why did they let the shot clock run out with the game on the line? Why did those shots by Nevada’s Terrance Green keep going in?

“I don’t know what to say,” said UCI guard Jerry Green, who had 25 points and keyed a second-half comeback. “We knew at halftime that sooner or later they were going to break. But that guy hit the shots and there was nothing we could do about it.”

That guy was freshman Terrance Green, the nephew of Laker forward A.C. Green. He made 10 of 15 shots, some that took their time on the rim before going down. None was bigger than the 17-footer with 56 seconds left that gave the Wolf Pack (3-9, 1-0) a 65-61 lead.

After Ben Jones missed a three-pointer, Adrian McCullough hit a 15-footer with 11 seconds left. But he merely closed the deal. It was all Terrance Green’s handiwork.

“I wanted this one real bad,” said Green, “I wanted us to get off to a good start in conference. I wanted to be a leader.”

Irvine could have used one early on, and on one key possession late in the game.

This wasn’t the cream of the Big West that the Anteaters (7-5, 0-1) faced. Things have been sour in Reno much of the season.

The Wolf Pack had two victories, against Washington State and Notre Dame--that’s the College of Notre Dame, an NAIA school from Belmont, Calif.

But the Anteaters were slow and sluggish from the start. They turned the ball over three times on their first four possessions and had eight turnovers in the first 10 minutes.

Irvine trailed, 34-23, at halftime.

“We were ready to play,” Coach Pat Douglass said. “I think we were as ready as we’ve been all year.

“We dug ourselves too big a hole, we missed a lot of easy shots.”

J.R. Christ, Greg Ethington and Sean Jackson shot air balls on three consecutive possessions.

“That’s our biggest weakness,” Jerry Green said. “We don’t start games well. Why? That’s a hard question.”

That wouldn’t have mattered had the Anteaters been able to sustain their second-half comeback.

Green, Jackson and Jones then led a 19-7 run. Green scored eight points and Jones had two three-pointers. Jackson (18 points) had the five points, including two free throws, that gave Irvine a 57-56 lead with 4:24 left.

Irvine called a timeout with the score tied at 61 with 1:56 left, and 17 seconds on the shot clock. The Anteaters never got off a shot, with Jackson having the ball knocked away while driving.

“That was my fault,” Jackson said. “I didn’t realize how much time was on the clock.”