Irvine Rises to Occasion, Top of Heap

UC Irvine considered its Big West Conference showdown with Utah State Wednesday night to be a test of how far the basketball program, which has not had a winning season since 1996, has come.

The Anteaters need only to look at this morning’s standings to figure that out.

Guard Jerry Green scored 22 points, pulled in 10 rebounds and had three assists as Irvine ended Utah State’s 26-game winning streak against conference opponents with a 56-51 victory in front of a record crowd of 5,231 at the Bren Center.

It was also a school-record 12th consecutive victory for Irvine (16-2, 8-0), which is alone in first place in the Big West standings for the first time in five years. The last time the Anteaters held any kind of top spot was for one week in February 1996, after they beat Long Beach State and held first place in one of two divisional races. But Irvine then lost five of its next seven.

That won’t happen this time, according to Green.

“This was a really big confidence builder for this team,” he said. “The last two years we have been struggling, but this season we’ve beaten Cal and Washington and now a team of this caliber. You can see the progress.”

Utah State (18-3, 7-1) had its 12-game winning streak stopped. The Aggies had not lost to a team from California since March 1999, 18 victories in a row. The two meet again a week from tonight in Logan.

“This ain’t over,” Utah State Coach Stew Merrill said. “This is going to be quite a league race. We’ve got to bounce back.”

Ten days from now, Merrill may prove to be right. Irvine plays at Long Beach State Saturday, then at Utah State and at Boise State next week. These are three of the toughest places in the Big West for road teams to win.

Try as he might, Irvine Coach Pat Douglass could not contain all of his feelings after the victory.

“This is a remarkable feat for this young squad,” he said.

Forward Shawn Daniels, despite early foul trouble, led the Aggies with 15 points. In fact, three of Utah’s best post players were in foul trouble for much of the first half and that allowed Irvine to insert former starter Malachi Edmond into the lineup. The 6-1 Edmond, who has lost his starting role to 6-9 Stanislav Zuzak when Irvine faces taller teams, scored six points in 14 minutes of work in the first half and that aided the Anteaters in rallying from an 11-3 deficit for a 28-26 halftime lead.

From there it was mostly Green, as he sliced his way through the Utah State defense.

Nonetheless, Green, an 80.1% free-throw shooter, missed three of four attempts during one period in the second half, including both attempts with 5:34 to play and Irvine trailing, 50-49.

Shortly thereafter the Anteaters got a couple of gifts. First, freshman Adam Parada, a 7-foot center, gave the Anteaters the lead for good, 53-51, with one minute, 20 seconds left on a 12-foot baseline jumper that caught everyone off guard.

“I never saw him take that shot on tape, so I was really surprised when he shot it,” said Daniels, who was helping Bernard Rock guard the baseline in the 2-3 defense. “But I was even more surprised when he made it.”

The next time down the court referee Jim Stupin whistled Green for charging into Utah State’s Brennan Ray. But referee Bill Staffen called Ray for blocking. Eventually, the players were handed a double foul, and Irvine, which had the possession arrow in its favor, got the ball back with 27 seconds left on the game clock.

Seven seconds later Edmond sank two free throws to make it 55-51.