Anteaters Stop Their Skid Just as Pavement Runs Out
This was a team wallowing in a disappointing season and desperate for a victory. For once, that team wasn’t UC Irvine.
Sure the Anteaters had lost 14 consecutive games, but their 92-73 victory in front of 1,818 Saturday in the Bren Center merely got the off-season off to a good start. The loss kept Cal Poly San Luis Obispo out of the Big West Conference tournament.
Jerry Green scored 18 points and Marek Ondera had 16 points and 11 rebounds to give Irvine its first victory since beating North Texas on Jan. 7. The Anteaters scored the first nine points and closed the first half with a 7-1 run to take a 41-37 halftime lead and never trailed again.
“People will look at this win and not see the significance,” an almost-giddy Coach Pat Douglass said. “It was very significant.”
It was for San Luis Obispo as well.
The Mustangs (11-16, 6-10), who were expected to challenge for the Western Division title, needed a victory and a Cal State Fullerton loss to salvage their season. Fullerton lost, but the Mustangs couldn’t fulfill their half.
They shot 36% and were outrebounded, 45-37.
A year ago, San Luis Obispo Coach Jeff Schneider declared his team, which had five returning starters, as favorites after beating Irvine in the regular-season finale. It didn’t pan out.
“We were 5-2, then [forward] Jeremiah Mayes and [guard] Watende Favors got injured and we lost seven straight,” Schneider said. “We lost our confidence. It’s like when UConn lost those two players.”
UConn somehow managed to muddle through. SLO couldn’t, even with the vaunted Mayes and Favors back in the lineup. Favors had 14 points Saturday, but Mayes scored only two.
Irvine (6-20, 2-14) led, 59-53, with 14 minutes left, then went on a 9-0 run. Ondera scored five of the points and San Luis Obispo folded. Irvine made 12 of 13 free throws in the last five minutes.
The Mustangs seemed to rush every possession in the last eight minutes.
“The pressure was on them,” Green said. “We weren’t playing to get into the Big West tournament.”
Still, the relief for Irvine was evident in the last minute.
Douglass received a bear hug from assistant Len Stevens with 45 seconds left and some Anteater players strutted off the court.
“I had almost forgotten how to react after a win,” said Green, who was seven of 11 from the field.
There had been near misses, plenty of them. The Anteaters lost six games by five points or fewer, two on last-second plays. In two other games, they blew 11-point leads in the second half.
“I kept telling myself, ‘We’ll get one this week,’ ” Douglass said. “But it kept going on and on.
“I knew it was going to be a difficult season, because we were young, but I never envisioned it being this difficult. We lost more games in fluke situations than I have lost in my entire career. We’re do for some luck in the future.”
Irvine, which led UC Santa Barbara by 11 with 11 minutes left Thursday, had a 10-point lead with 11 minutes left against the Mustangs.
“It ran through my mind,” Green said. “I couldn’t let that happen again. Enough was enough.”
Green had a hand in most of it, with six assists and six rebounds to go with his points. But, unlike Thursday, he wasn’t the extent of the offense.
Jason Flowers scored 14 points, Adam Stetson 13 points and Ben Jones 11. Even Matt Willard lent a hand, scoring five consecutive points--two more than his average--to give Irvine a 77-63 lead with 4:32 left.
