Free Throws Are a Factor Again as Long Beach Stops Anteaters

LONG BEACH —  They call them free throws, but they can cost--or pay.

Dozens of lines cross the court in Cal State Long Beach’s University Gym--boundaries for at least three basketball courts and two volleyball courts--but the two lines 15 feet from the baskets at either end were the ones that confounded Cal State Long Beach and UC Irvine Friday.

Long Beach, cursed at the line all season, shot 57% there against Irvine, but the 49ers’ Kevin Cutler sank two critical free throws with 10 seconds left to help Long Beach to a 66-63 victory in front of 1,779 in University Gym.

Irvine, which made only 61% of its free throws and only eight of 16 in the second half, was out of timeouts. Forced to go for three, Irvine missed its final two attempts, as Gerald McDonald’s shot bounded away and Dylan Rigdon’s final desperate shot went up weakly, far short.

With that, Irvine (7-10, 2-3 in the Big West) lost a game the Anteaters led by 12 points in the second half.

“It really (ticks) me off,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said.

Irvine made just 22 of 36 free throws and missed some of the ones it needed most.

McDonald missed the second of two with 11 seconds left, missing a chance to tie the score. Ricky Butler was called for a foul as he attempted to rebound, sending Cutler to the line.

“I knew the first one was going in,” said Cutler, who was shooting 62%. “The second one looked for a minute . . . it bounced, my heart stopped. . . . “

And it went in, leaving Long Beach (5-8, 1-3) a defensive stand away from its first Big West Conference victory in four games.

“I’m glad we finally won one,” Cutler said.

It was a few more moments before Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg felt safe.

“You’ve got to understand, when you lose three games like we have, sometimes you think you’ll never win again. . . . And Irvine shoots the ball so well . . . Last night, I’m sitting up and all I can see is like rainbows going in the basket.”

Irvine’s rainbows didn’t fall Friday. The Anteaters shot just 32% from the field, although Jeff Herdman, playing ill, made five of 13 three-pointers, finishing with 17 points. Butler led Irvine with 25 points and 11 rebounds, his fourth double-double.

After leading most of the game, Irvine thought it was looking at its eighth victory, but it was not to be.

“Our offense did not get the job done,” Mulligan said. “We out and out got beat. Our free throws at times really hurt.”

Take, for instance, the two-for-eight stretch during the second half.

Irvine led, 41-29, after a Rigdon three-pointer less than two minutes into the second half. But then Cutler, who scored 18 points, and Troy Joseph, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds off the bench despite a painful hip pointer, started cutting away, with help from a three-pointer by Bobby Sears and a turn-around shot by Adam Henderson, a freshman who started at center.

Rigdon made a steal but looped outward on his way to the basket and never got a shot off. Fouled, he made only one of two despite being an 81% shooter from the line.

“Rigdon went in there kind of casual after he stole the ball,” Mulligan said. “It should have been a three-point play.”

A short time later, Butler had a chance for a three-point play. He had made nine of 12 free throws in the first half as Long Beach struggled to control him inside, but this time he missed, and Irvine’s lead was only five points, 46-41.

Butler was at the line again within minutes, trying to hold the lead. He missed the first, and flapped his hands in exasperation, only to miss the second.

“I can’t shoot ‘em,” Butler said. “I don’t know why. We got here at 6, and I shot ‘em for 45 minutes, but in the game I got nervous. We felt really confident coming out at halftime. We were playing well and everything was going right. But they made their free throws when they had to.”

McDonald missed one of two, and Craig Marshall missed one to finish the two-for-eight shooting streak. For Long Beach, it might have been a turning point in a season that up to now has been disappointing.

“We were just fortunate to win, let’s face it,” Greenberg said. “It’s a chemistry problem. We’ve got very good athletes. We’ve just got to get ‘em playing together. I know the preseason expectations. . . . It’s going to take a little while. “

Anteater Notes

UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan’s son Shawn, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and a helicopter pilot instructor based in Tustin, is expecting to be sent to the Persian Gulf soon.