Irvine Takes Care of Home Business

UC Irvine’s four-game home stand that was supposed to signal a charge into first place in the Big West Conference had looked more like a straight path down the standings.

Stung by losses to UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last week, the Anteaters didn’t mess around with UC Riverside Wednesday night as they scored an easy 78-61 victory before 1,496 at the Bren Center.

Irvine (12-7, 6-4), which lost three in a row and fell into fourth place, had its way with Riverside. Mike Hood had 18 points and Adam Parada and Jeff Gloger each added 16 as the Anteaters shot 55.6%.

“We were up eight at the half and I thought our kids came out with more concentration in the second half than we did the other night,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said.

Forward Matt Okoro had 12 points and helped hold Riverside freshman Nate Carter to a season-low seven points. Carter, the Big West’s leading scorer, was averaging 18.3 points and had reached double figures in every game.

“That’s probably as good a job as anyone has done on Carter,” Douglass said.

Leading, 32-24, at halftime, the Anteaters allowed a basket to Kevin Butler before going on a 19-7 run that effectively finished the Highlanders (4-12, 3-7). Gloger and Hood got layups and Parada and Okoro each had dunks during the spurt. Irvine got 23 points off 19 Riverside turnovers and had 10 fast-break points.

It was a direct contrast of Saturday’s 74-68 loss to Cal Poly in which Irvine blew a 10-point halftime lead.

“All of us had to keep our heads high,” Gloger said. “We didn’t want the same thing to happen tonight.”

Ted Bell led Riverside with 15 points and Mark Peters added 14. But Coach John Masi was not pleased with the effort.

“It’s important for our guys to be mentally prepared to play the game, especially against the upper echelon teams in the league,” Masi said.