Irvine Finds Its Fast Break, Runs Past Howard

After two sluggish exhibition outings, UC Irvine ran Howard right out of the Bren Center in a 71-47 victory Friday.

Five players scored in double figures for Irvine, led by senior forward Ben Jones, who had 22 points and nine rebounds. Junior guard Jerry Green scored 17, had a career-high seven steals and also five assists.

It was the season opener for both teams.

Irvine trailed 21-16 with 12 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half when the Anteaters figured out that they needed to start running more.

A three-point basket by senior guard Malachi Edmond, a free throw by reserve center Stanislav Zuzak and three consecutive fast-break baskets by Jones were all part of a 13-2 run that put the Anteaters ahead, 29-23, with 5 1/2 minutes left in the half.

“We just came out running,” Green said. “We began to push it up. That’s where our strength is.”

It didn’t look that way before Friday.

“It takes time to learn it,” Green said. “We practiced it.

“And the films, we watched the films of the exhibitions and it was a learning experience.”

Irvine held a 40-30 edge in rebounding and shot 48.1%, thanks to a lot of layups that were generated off fast breaks.

That’s not quite the same team that was content to bomb from three-point range during two exhibitions.

“‘We were looking to run any time they missed,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said.

Guards Ron Williamson and Ali Abdullah led Howard, which has won three games in the past two seasons, with 14 points each. Former Los Angeles Verbum Dei center Nick Dodson, a sophomore, started for the Bison and finished with four points and five rebounds in 22 minutes. Senior Reggie Morris, formerly of L.A. Southwest College, missed all four field-goal attempts and finished with two points.

Sophomore Jonathan Stokes, who played at Los Angeles Crenshaw, made one of three field-goal attempts in 24 minutes of play and finished with two points.

The visitors from Washington, D.C., trailed only 39-32 at the half. But after a couple of minutes fumbling around to open the second half, Irvine pulled away.

Back-to-back baskets by reserve center J.R. Christ started Irvine on a 19-3 run that saw the Anteaters expand their lead from 44-36 to 65-39 with seven minutes remaining.

Some of that had to do with the Anteaters switching from a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone in the second half. Howard struggled to get inside after that. Howard made just four of 24 shots in the second half.

And Irvine continued to run and Howard couldn’t set up its half-court zone defense.

“We haven’t seen zone all that much,” Douglass said. “We have practiced against one, but we figured out a way to attack them when they did get set up. We found a way to penetrate it.”

But mostly, Irvine ran.

“Jerry [Green] got the ball on the break and he made a couple of baskets and we just went,” Jones said. “I thought we had a lot of defensive intensity The guys were into it.”