Improving Irvine Rolls to Seventh Straight Win

UC Santa Barbara Coach Bob Williams has seen the dramatic upswing in the men’s basketball program at UC Irvine coming for several seasons.

He didn’t say he liked what he saw, just that he has been telling anyone who will listen not to look past the Anteaters any longer.

“These guys are hungry to win and hungry to learn,” Williams said after the Gauchos lost to Irvine, 80-56, Saturday at the Bren Center in front of an announced crowd of 3,084.

It was the seventh consecutive win for Irvine (11-2, 3-0), and it leaves the Anteaters near the top of the Big West Conference standings behind Utah State.

Utah State (13-2, 4-0), which beat Pacific on Saturday, 73-59, was the heavy favorite to repeat as conference champion in both coaches’ and media preseason polls. Irvine was picked to finish as high as fourth.

It’s still too early to predict the conference race, Williams and Irvine Coach Pat Douglass agreed, but the Anteaters seem to be marching with confidence toward a Jan. 31 showdown at home against the Aggies.

“They have matured into a good team and that allowed them to dig down deep like they did tonight,” Williams said. “They are playing at a high level and they seem to be enjoying their success. They seem to be always ready mentally and physically.”

That was obvious when guard Jerry Green, who finished with 23 points, didn’t start as fast as usual. Other players picked up the slack.

Freshman Adam Parada, a 7-foot center, had 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Senior guard Malachi Edmond, who has struggled to find his role in the offense after being held out of the starting lineup for five of the seven victories, had 12 points and five rebounds.

Senior forward Sean Jackson, who has struggled to approachthe level he showed when he scored 23 points in an early-season win over California, scored 11.

“We are loving it,” Parada said. “We are feeding off of this success. We are proving a lot of people wrong and surprising a lot of people. But it’s not a surprise to us. We expected this, but we have a long way to go before the season ends.”

Irvine held a 41-24 rebounding advantage, thanks in part to Parada’s work against three different players, including former Mater Dei standout Mike Vukovich.

“[Parada] is pretty good,” said Vukovich, who was held to nine points and four rebounds. “He’s young, but playing at a top level. I think we got run down a bit and that’s not an excuse, but we should be playing better than this.”

Forward Mark Hull led the Gauchos (5-8, 2-1) with 14 points, but he scored 11 in the first half before the game got out of reach.

Green also had seven assists and was eight of nine from the free-throw line. But he didn’t take over the game immediately, as he has in recent weeks.

“Jerry missed a few shots early, but it didn’t faze him,” Douglass said.

Santa Barbara, which is shooting 40% from the field for the season, made five of its first eight shots to lead, 13-10, after Hull scored with 14:14 remaining in the first half. The Gauchos made it 16-12 with 12:48 left before Irvine responded.

Reserve guard Aras Baskauskas drove for a basket and Jackson hit a three-pointer off an inbounds pass from Green. Green made a 15-foot baseline jumper and Irvine led, 19-17, with 8:50 remaining in the half.

Hull’s turnaround jumper over Ben Jones tied the score, but in the next three minutes three different Gauchos missed seven lay-ups.

Irvine went on a 10-0 run for a 29-19 lead and expanded that to as many as 24 points in the second half.

Parada had 11 points and nine rebounds by halftime.

“Irvine has the right player in Jerry Green,” Williams said, “and they have a nice big guy in Parada and they have other guys who do what they have to. I’m not surprised that these guys are becoming tremendously successful.”

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Big West Standings

Through Saturday’s games

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Conference Overall Team W L Pct. W L Pct. Utah State 4 0 1.000 14 2 .875 UC Irvine 3 0 1.000 11 2 .846 UC Santa Barbara 2 1 .667 5 8 .385 Boise State 2 2 .500 10 7 .588 Long Beach State 2 2 .500 8 8 .500 Pacific 2 2 .500 10 5 .667 CS Fullerton 1 3 .250 2 12 .143 Cal Poly SLO 0 2 .000 5 7 .417 Idaho 0 4 .000 3 12 .200

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Thursday’s results

Boise State 79, Long Beach State 77, OT

Cal State Fullerton 64, Idaho 53

UC Irvine 80, UC Santa Barbara 56

Utah State 73, Pacific 59