Streaking Irvine Trips Utah State

UC Irvine considered its Big West Conference showdown with visiting Utah State Wednesday night to be a test case for just how far the basketball program has come.

The Anteaters, who have not had a winning season since 1995-96, need only to look at the standings this morning to figure that out.

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

It was a school-record 12th consecutive victory for Irvine (16-2, 8-0), which has sole possession of first place in the conference for the first time since February 1996, when it held first place in the Western Division of the Big West for a week.

Utah State’s 12-game winning streak was stopped. The Aggies (18-3, 7-1) had not lost to a team from California since March 1999--a string of 18 wins.

Forward Shawn Daniels scored 15 points for Utah State, which gets a rematch with the Anteaters a week from tonight in Logan.

A controversial call aided the Anteaters after 7-foot freshman Adam Parada had given them the lead for good, 53-51, with a rare 12-foot baseline jumper with 1 minute 20 seconds to go.

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. The two referees conferred, called a double foul, and Irvine, with the possession arrow in its favor, got the ball back with 27 seconds left.

Seven seconds later, Malachi Moses sank two free throws to make it 55-51.