Green Saves His Best for Last; Irvine Wins

Where was Jerry Green all night?

UC Irvine’s leading scorer hit his only field goal--a 15-foot jumper with 4.4 seconds left--to lift UC Irvine to a 58-57 Big West Conference victory over Long Beach State in front of 2,956 spectators at the Pyramid Saturday night.

Long Beach’s Ron Johnson had a driving layup roll off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

Seconds earlier, Johnson was faked out by Green for the game-winning shot on a play that Long Beach had broken down. Green somehow muscled the ball in.

“I knew it was going to come down to the last shot and I wanted to be in there,” said Green, who sat out much of the second half. “It was not the play we designed, but I knew it was in when I shot it.”

Green scored four points, making two free throws to go with his field goal. UCI’s Sean Jackson led all scorers with 15 points.

“Jerry wasn’t Jerry tonight,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “I think [Wednesday] took something out of him.”

Irvine got a taste of how humbling the next seven days on the road may be.

Just three days after they grabbed sole possession of first place by beating Utah State, 56-51, the front-running Anteaters were nearly brought down to earth in a game marred by ugly shooting by both teams.

Long Beach led for most of the second half. A short jumper from Irvine senior guard Malachi Edmond, formerly of Long Beach Poly High, and some quick thinking by freshman center Adam Parada helped Irvine increase its school-record winning streak to 13 games.

Edmond’s shot with 1:15 to go gave Irvine a 56-54 lead. Then Parada blocked a shot by Long Beach’s Travis Reed and Irvine got possession.

Edmond missed a three-point try with less than 30 seconds to play, and Jackson was whistled for a foul against Lemi Williams with 19 seconds left. Williams missed both free throws, but Ramel Lloyd grabbed the rebound, scored and was fouled by Jackson, his fifth.

Lloyd made the free throw for a 57-56 lead.

After a timeout, Edmond nearly lost the ball at midcourt with 10 seconds left, but he gave it to Green, who went left and pulled up for an off-balance jumper near the free-throw line.

Irvine (17-2, 9-0), which entered the game as the best free-throw shooting team in the Big West (72.5%), made just six of 17 from the line and committed 17 turnovers, 12 of those in the first half.

Long Beach (12-10, 5-4), which lost at home Thursday to UC Santa Barbara, looked like it would snap Irvine’s winning streak.

“Our kids played their hearts out. Irvine played hard, too,” Long Beach Coach Wayne Morgan said. “They were fortunate to make the last shot. If we had more time, maybe we’d make the last shot.”

Irvine remained a game up in the standings on Utah State.

The Anteaters travel to Logan Thursday for a rematch and then play at Boise State, which played the Anteaters tough the first time around, Saturday.