Irvine Holds Up Well but Falls Short in End

UC Irvine has created enough pressure on its own lately, but on Saturday, Irvine had to worry about New Mexico State’s brand of pressure.

That means in-your-jersey defense, and that can mean trouble--and turnovers by the dozens.

Irvine had lost seven of its past eight heading into its game against the 16th-ranked Aggies. And the memory of being hassled into 33 turnovers by this team last month was still fresh.

But the Anteaters stiffened at the challenge and threw a scare into New Mexico State before losing, 73-65, in front of 2,522.

“I thought Coach (Bill) Mulligan did a heck of a job handling our pressure, especially in the first half,” New Mexico State Coach Neil McCarthy said.

Irvine, which had 20 turnovers in the first half last month, had nine at halftime Saturday and finished with 21, two fewer than the average Aggie opponent.

“We just finally wore them down with our defensive intensity in the second half,” McCarthy said. “It went down the wire, and that was winning time for us.

“It came down to the end. Probably the difference is we’re used to winning a little more.”

Mulligan was proud of the way his team played at a time when the Anteaters’ hopes for the season seem to be slipping away. Irvine is 8-17, 3-10 in the Big West.

“They seem to hang in there. They don’t seem to quit,” Mulligan said. “Their morale has been surprisingly good. I’m proud of that.”

But he couldn’t help but think back to Thursday’s 72-60 loss to Cal State Long Beach.

“I think if we played like that against Long Beach, we could have won the game,” he said. “We played hard, but they turned it up defensively. A lot of credit goes to the way they defend.”

They didn’t do enough to defend Irvine’s Jeff Herdman in the first half.

Herdman, making an average of almost four three-pointers a game, scored 17 points in the first half, making four of eight from beyond the line.

“He was shooting way beyond the three-point line,” McCarthy said. “It wasn’t just three-pointers, it was NBA three-pointers, like two feet behind the line.

“I said, ‘There’s no way in the world he can keep making all those shots. But just in case, let’s go trap him every time he gets the ball.’ ”

With both teams shooting better than 50% in the first half, New Mexico State clung to a 42-40 halftime lead.

But the Aggies (17-2, 9-1) stepped up their high-pressure, trapping zone defense in the second half, and Herdman made only one more basket, a three-pointer, to finish with 20 points.

With Herdman more in check, Irvine looked inside. But almost every time the ball went down low, the Aggies trapped there, too.

That was where many of the turnovers came, from Ricky Butler and Jeff Von Lutzow, each of whom had six.

Butler, who scored 11 points, was held to seven shots for the second game in a row.

“We didn’t get the ball in to Butler enough,” Mulligan said.

Von Lutzow picked up some of the slack, scoring 10 of his 14 points in the second half, many of them on dunks.

He came back in the second half despite being called for a technical in the first. Mulligan had benched him for receiving a technical in the game against the Aggies last month.

In that game, point guard Gerald McDonald had 11 turnovers. He held up to the pressure Saturday, with only five, along with 10 points and five assists.

“I thought Gerald McDonald had a really fine game and handled the press well,” Mulligan said.

All told, New Mexico State had 13 steals, four of them by Randy Brown, who added six points and seven assists.

Irvine cut the lead to 63-62 with 5:43 on a shot by Butler inside. But Butler turned the ball over with an opportunity to put the Anteaters ahead, and then New Mexico State’s Reggie Jordan completed a three-point play.

“That’s the way the ball bounces,” Von Lutzow said. “We should have won. I felt we should have won it.”

Anteater Notes

UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan repeated his disappointment that his team hasn’t been able to take advantage of what he perceives as a weak league. “The sad thing is third place was up for grabs. I think we have to win four of the next five to make the (Big West) tournament. I say four of five because one of ‘em is at Vegas. I’m not counting that as a win.” . . . Dylan Rigdon, who did not play Thursday because of an ankle injury, returned and played 17 minutes off the bench, going one for five and scoring five points . . . Next: UC Santa Barbara in the Bren Center Saturday.