UC Irvine stops Santa Barbara
Entering the Big West tournament, UC Irvine was the team nobody wanted to play.
The Anteaters showed why Friday night.
Seeded fifth, Irvine defeated top-seeded UC Santa Barbara, 55-50, in a semifinal at the Anaheim Convention Center and will play Cal State Fullerton tonight in the final with a berth in the NCAA tournament on the line.
Playing their third game in three nights, Irvine (18-15) somehow found the defensive energy to disrupt the Gauchos (23-8) into shooting 31.9% from the field, well below their season average of 45.9%.
Still, Santa Barbara had a chance to tie in the waning moments, but Irvine’s Michael Hunter forced Gauchos guard Alex Harris to take an awkward three-point shot, and Harris, the conference co-player of the year missed badly, leaving Irvine ahead, 53-50, with four seconds to play.
“The batteries were a little bit low, but defensively we just never quit,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglas said. “We found a way to get some fuel in the tank and just keep battling.”
Irvine finished league play in fifth place but came into the conference tournament having won seven of its last 10 games with victories over Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge, which ended in a three-way tie with Fullerton for the league title, during that stretch.
Friday’s game marked Irvine’s fourth consecutive victory over Santa Barbara, three of which have come this season.
“They obviously have our number a little bit,” said Santa Barbara Coach Bob Williams, who acknowledged before the tournament that Irvine was the team that most concerned him. “We’re obviously disappointed that the lid was on the basket the majority of the game for us.”
The Gauchos (23-8) struggled from all areas of the court. They missed seven layups, were four of 17 (23.5) on three-point shots and made only 16 of 29 (55.2%) free throws.
During the regular season, they led the Big West in three-point percentage at 41.8% and were second in free throws at 76.1%.
“I think I got a lot of looks that I normally knock down,” said Harris, who had 17 points on three-for-13 shooting. “I didn’t have my best performance and didn’t take advantage of what I usually take advantage of.”
Darren Fells had 14 points and nine rebounds for Irvine while Patrick Rembert had 12 points. Rembert, a freshman guard who shot 60% from the free-throw line this season, made five of six in the closing minutes.
Irvine will be making its first appearance in the conference championship game since 1994 and only the second in team history. The Anteaters had lost in the semifinals in four of the last seven seasons.
But only one team seeded outside of the top four has ever won the Big West tournament: Sixth-seeded San Jose State in 1996. Winning a fourth game in four nights is a monumental task, especially against an up-tempo Fullerton team, but Fells said he is up to the task.
“I have plenty of gas,” he said. “As many minutes that are left on the clock is as much energy as I’ll have.”
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Cal State Fullerton 83, Cal State Northridge 68 -- The third-seeded Titans led from start to finish, racing to a 20-9 lead and maintained a double-digit lead thereafter against the second-seeded Matadors.
Josh Akognon scored 24 points, Scott Cutley had 17 points and Frank Robinson had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Titans (23-8), who will be making their first appearance in the conference title game since 1985, when they lost to a Jerry Tarkanian-coached Nevada Las Vegas team.
Fullerton swept the season series from UC Irvine. The Titans have not been to the NCAA tournament since 1978, and UC Irvine will be trying to make its first appearance.
Tremaine Townsend had 16 points and 16 rebounds and for Northridge (20-10).
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TONIGHT’S FINAL
* Cal State Fullerton (23-8) vs.
UC Irvine (18-15), 8
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