Missed Opportunities Foil Anteaters

On this, everyone associated with the rebuilding of the men’s basketball team at UC Irvine agreed: The Anteaters need to win these types of games, not just come close.

But there was disagreement about what could have been done to stop San Diego from taking a 63-60 victory over Irvine Wednesday night at the Bren Center.

Coach Pat Douglass said he wasn’t happy with the play of senior guard Malachi Edmond, senior swingman Sean Jackson or junior guard Jerry Green. Green said that for Douglass to hang the loss on the veteran trio wasn’t appropriate.

“We all lacked intensity,” said Green. “We didn’t play that well. You can’t blame it just on the veterans.”

But those veterans had a big part in the result.

Green had two opportunities in the waning moments. With Irvine trailing, 61-60, he forced two consecutive passes into the key, the second of which was intercepted by center Tyler Field with 31 seconds left.

After San Diego added a free throw with 25 seconds to go, Green dribbled the ball off his foot in front of the Irvine bench, regained control and drove into the key, where he collided with teammate J.R. Christ. Green’s off-balance toss at the basket wasn’t even close, and the Anteaters lost for the first time in three games.

Edmond, appeared to be hampered by a nagging groin pull, had eight assists and no turnovers, but was only two of five from the floor for five points.

Green had nine points on four-for-11 shooting. Jackson was held scoreless in and committed two turnovers.

Douglass, as perplexed as he seemed after the game, appeared to be most upset with how the final minute of the game progressed.

“Our guards need to step it up,” Douglass said. “We missed some assignments out there. These are upperclassmen and sometimes we didn’t get good decision-making.

“San Diego is a good team,” he said. “But we were at home and we could have won. It’s disappointing. We had two chances in the end of the game and when you get those chances you’ve got to get a shot in those two possessions.

Forward Ben Jones, who finished with 19 points, took the team’s scoring load upon himself in most of the critical moments, and Christ came off the bench to hit six of nine shots from the field for 15 points. Irvine (2-1) made 52% of its field goal attempts; San Diego shot 41.7%.

It was San Diego’s fifth consecutive victory over the Anteaters, and second in a row at the Bren Center, and the final script couldn’t have been written any better for Coach Brad Holland.

“We knew for sure that Jerry Green would get the ball in his hands in the end,” Holland said. “We played to double-team him, whatever it takes to throw him off.”

Guard Dana White led San Diego (4-1) with 13 points, including four three-pointers. Tom Lippold, from Mater Dei, had four points and five rebounds but injured his right ankle 4 1/2 minutes into the game and was largely ineffective when he returned.

San Diego took a 44-37 lead with 14:47 left on White’s three-pointer. But Irvine got two baskets from Jones as part of a 12-3 run that gave the Anteaters their last lead, 49-47.