Anteaters, Jackson Lean On Santa Barbara

Sean Jackson came out of hiding Thursday night as UC Irvine improved its already high profile by rolling to its 10th consecutive victory.

A nearly forgotten option in what had evolved into a one-dimensional Anteater attack, Jackson emerged to score a season-high 20 points and provide top-notch defense to lead Irvine to a 66-56 Big West Conference victory at UC Santa Barbara.

The Anteaters (14-2, 6-0) can tie a school record for most consecutive victories by winning Saturday at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Santa Barbara is headed in the opposition direction. The punchless Gauchos (5-11, 2-4) have lost four straight and seem to be slipping deeper into an offensive funk that has turned their home floor into the Thunder-less Dome, where at times Thursday you could have heard a pin drop among the announced crowd of 2,022. The Gauchos made only 19 of 58 shots from the field, and 12 of 23 free throws.

“Their defense was very, very effective in taking us out of where we wanted to go offensively,” Santa Barbara Coach Bob Williams said. “We’re not a very confident team right now.”

Irvine wasn’t shooting much better, making only 22 of 54 shots and 10 of 22 free throws. Those are numbers that would have resulted in losses for the Anteaters in past seasons. But Irvine also made 10 of a season-high 22 three-point shots.

For the last month, Anteater guard Jerry Green has been the talk of the Big West, a three-time player of the week pick who has led Irvine on its impressive run.

But he had only 11 points Saturday in the Anteaters’ 62-54 win over Cal State Fullerton, and Thursday night he was the object of a lot of attention from the Gauchos. Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said he was surprised when Santa Barbara started the game with a box-and-one defense, with LaRon Bryant doing a good job of keeping the ball away from Green.

“To be honest, we never practiced against it,” Douglass said of the matchup defense. “But I didn’t worry about it. Jerry has been carrying us for some time, but we have a lot of people like Sean who can step up.”

Green, who scored 23 points and had seven assists in Irvine’s 80-56 win over Santa Barbara on Jan. 13, finished with 16 points Thursday and moved up to No. 13 on UCI’s career scoring list. But he didn’t get his first basket--a three-pointer--until five minutes remained in the first half. By that time Irvine had already taken control, 26-14. It went on to build a 20-point cushion with nine minutes to go in the game.

At first Jackson, a 6-foot-5 senior guard averaging 7.2 points per game this season, guarded Gaucho forward Mark Hull. Hull was coming off an 18-point performance in Santa Barbara’s 68-67 loss to Idaho. But he made only one of 11 shots Thursday and finished with two points.

Later, Jackson shifted to guard Nick Jones, who hurt the Anteaters with several key baskets in the first half. Jones finished with seven points before fouling out.

Guard Malachi Edmond had 10 rebounds and eight assists and Zuzak, the rapidly improving freshman forward from the Czech Republic, came off the bench to score 10 points and grab four rebounds in 21 minutes.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Big West Standings

Through Thursday’s games

*--*

Conference Overall Team W L Pct. W L Pct. UC Irvine 6 0 1.000 14 2 .875 Utah State 6 0 1.000 17 2 .895 Long Beach State 4 2 .667 11 8 .579 Pacific 4 3 .571 12 6 .667 Boise State 3 4 .429 11 9 .550 CS Fullerton 2 4 .333 3 13 .188 UC Santa Barbara 2 4 .333 5 11 .313 Idaho 1 6 .143 4 14 .222 Cal Poly SLO 0 5 .000 6 10 .375

*--*

Thursday’s results

Boise State 80, Idaho 59

Cal State Fullerton 85, Cal Poly SLO 77

UC Irvine 66, UC Santa Barbara 56

Utah State 62, Pacific 51