Anteaters back in the groove

Amara Aguilar

BREN EVENTS CENTER - UC Irvine sophomore forward Matt Okoro stepped

out of his shell and into the spotlight as the Anteaters slammed the door

on Cal Poly, 77-63, in a Big West Conference men’s basketball game

Thursday.

Okoro did not lead the Anteaters (19-8, 12-4 in the Big West) in

points. That honor belonged to senior guard Jerry Green (23 points),

followed by junior forward Jordan Harris (19 points). But Okoro (10

points) did provide a spark for the Anteaters with four slam dunks in the

second half.

The score was tied, 39-39, with 16:38 left to play when Harris hit a

three-pointer to begin a 13-0 run for the Anteaters that featured a

high-flying Okoro putting home three dunks. The Anteaters picked up the

pace and went on to lead by as many as 17 points.

“Whenever Matt does stuff like that (it gets us going),” Harris said.

“That tip-in dunk he had was incredible. That always gets everyone

juiced. It gets the fans going crazy. It gets us more intense and

focused, and it deters the other team.”

The Anteaters’ energy in the second half did seem to silence the

Mustangs (14-9, 8-7, who dominated at the start of the game. Cal Poly

took 25-17 lead with 6:17 remaining in the first half, but UCI answered

with a 10-4 run to gain some ground.

“The first 10 minutes today we weren’t being aggressive,” UCI Coach

Pat Douglass said. “After the 10 minutes we were pretty good ... We seem

to play better when we are moving quick. I think we need to be more

aggressive, we’ve tried to be aggressive in our last few games.”

Junior guard Mike Hood made a key three-pointer and Harris scored on a

jumper to knot the score, 32-32 with 47 seconds left until the break.

Cal Poly’s Brandon Beeson made a two-pointer, but Hood came up with

another three-pointer to give the Anteaters a 35-34 advantage at

halftime.

Beeson piled up 15 points in the first half followed by Varnie Dennis

with nine for Cal Poly.

“Beeson really got off to a good start,” Douglass said. “He’s a local

kid from Woodbridge High so I knew he was going to play well. Dennis

looked like he was really going to have a huge night and he ended up with

11 points, so we tried to stop him in the first 10 minutes of the game,

which we did.”

Beeson finished with a team-leading 21 points, followed by Jason Allen

with 12.

In the second half, Beeson hit a shot to start things off for the

Mustangs, but Okoro answered with dunk off a dish from Hood to get the

Anteaters going.

“I think the reason we won is because we pushed the ball up more,

which we really didn’t do (when we lost to Cal Poly earlier in the

season),” Green said. “So that was big. Matt got a couple of dunks.

Jordan had some easy transitions and I got the crowd and us into it.

Matt, man, this is probably the best game he played. He really showed

people what he can do out there. Jordan played well, Mike hit some

threes, so everybody played well tonight.”

The Mustangs weren’t so fortunate. After making 11 of 24 field goals

in the first half (45.8%), they made only 7 of 26 after the break

(26.9%).

The Anteaters, led by Harris with 10 boards, outrebounded the

Mustangs, 34-29, and made 18 of 21 free throws in the second half.

“We tried to play a little quicker,” Douglass said. “Matt was the

spark defensively. He’s obviously a good athlete. He’s getting more

relaxed. We have had high expectations for him all season. All season

he’s been a little tight, so tonight I thought he relaxed. When he does

something spectacular, you don’t see it every day. So it really paid for

the entertainment dollar tonight.”

UC Irvine is a half-game behind Utah State (20-4, 12-3) in the Big West race.