Anteaters searching for rhythm

Steve Virgen

With two games remaining before the UC Irvine men’s basketball

team begins Big West Conference action, Anteater Coach Pat Douglass

described his squad’s play last week and its challenge upcoming this

weekend.

“We lost our rhythm, since we had over 10 days off,” Douglass said

of the Anteaters’ two-game road trip last week. “These two home games

are important for us to get our rhythm back because league starts

next week.”

The Anteaters (4-3) shot 38.2% from the field in the 84-57 loss at

Stanford Dec. 19. UCI followed that up, going lower for a 33.3%

outing, yet took advantage of its free throws in a 62-50 win at Saint

Mary’s Sunday. Tonight at 7:05, the Anteaters will attempt to break

out when they host Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne (2-10)

“A little bit of that might have been (Saint Mary’s defense),”

Douglass explained of his team’s shooting woes. “We’re a good

shooting team. When you don’t play for a length of time, you lose

that shooting touch. I’m confident that our team is a good shooting

team.”

Indiana-Purdue is coming off a 78-71 loss at Oregon State Dec. 20.

The Mastodons are led by 6-foot-10, 230-pound junior center Jim

Kessenich (14.6 points per game), 6-7 sophomore swingman Ric Wyand

(11.6) and 6-0 sophomore guard Terry Collins (9.8). Wyand has hit 21

of his 61 three-point attempts (.344), while Collins is 17 of 71 from

beyond the arc (.239).

“They have good size and they are a good shooting team,” Douglass

said of the Mastodons. “When I look at tapes they have good shooters.

They have played a tough schedule. They’re a pretty dangerous team

for us to be playing.”

Douglass will counter Indiana-Purdue’s attack with basically the

same starting lineup that went up against Saint Mary’s and included

freshman Mike Efevberha, sophomore Greg Ethington and junior Matt

Okoro making their first starts of the season.

Efevberha scored a career-high 17 points in the win over Saint

Mary’s. UCI’s 7-0 junior center Adam Parada scored a season-low two

points, fouling out in the eight minutes he played.

“I’m comfortable that Adam Parada is going to play well, soon,”

Douglass said of the center who earned second-team All-Big West

honors last season and is leading the Anteaters with 11.1 points per

game. “He’s just been foul prone. He needs to focus more in the style

of play that’s going to keep him in.”