Anteaters’ women in payback mode

With the amount of injuries, defections, suspensions and coaching-staff turnover the UC Irvine women’s basketball program has experienced the last three seasons, Coach Molly Tuter might have expected Governor Schwarzenegger to show up any day with an offer of disaster relief.

Instead, Tuter and her players have kept their heads down, kept their rehabilitation appointments, and kept churning toward a time when someone might be made to pay for their collective misfortune.

That time may have arrived this season.

“I think [the aforementioned adversity], plus losing [Angie] Ned [a two-time Big West Defensive Player of the Year who led the team in scoring the last two seasons and is now playing professionally in Holland] might cause people to look past us big-time,” Tuter said. “But that’s fine. It’s great, actually.”

The Anteaters were picked to finish tied for last by the coaches and eighth in the nine-team conference by the media in the preseason polls.

But Tuter merely tacks those prognostications to an already cluttered collection of bulletin-board material that includes a season log of last year’s 6-24 mark, 3-11 in conference.

Since its last winning season in 2002-03 (a 17-12 campaign), UCI is 29-84.

Returning second-team all-conference performer Kelly Cochran lasted just five games last season, before suffering a season-ending knee injury, a fate that befell talented Utah State transfer Christina Zdenek after nine games.

Just 10 games in, 6-foot-4 center Naomi Halman, who had seemingly just begun to find her rhythm, flew home to the Netherlands, never to return.

Cochran, a 6-0 junior post who averaged 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds before being sidelined last season, is back healthy, as is Zdenek, who was producing 8.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per contest before undergoing knee surgery.

Stephanie Duda, a 5-9 senior who, forced to fill in for Cochran and Holman in the post, merely averaged a double-double last season (12.5 points and 11.1 rebounds), is also back to wreak havoc inside. She figures to widen the legions of those stumped as to why a player who led the conference in rebounding (eighth nationally) and steals (2.4 per game), and led her team in scoring 24 times in 30 games while battling opponents a head taller, could only garner honorable mention in all-conference voting.

“That’s still a chip on my shoulder,” Tuter said of Duda’s All-Big West snub.

Duda, a grinder who is looking forward to having a 10-deep rotation that includes Kim Barnes, a 6-4 freshman center from New Zealand, said she is only seeking redemption for the team.

“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” said Duda, who along with Cochran, Zdenek, senior Miranda Forry and sophomore Kirian Ishizaki, figure to make up the starting lineup. “People underestimate us, but we’re ready to show them what we’ve got.”

Forry, a 5-10 guard, was also pressed into post duty last season, when she averaged 7.5 points and 4.1 rebounds. This year, she can use her tenacity and athleticism on the perimeter, where she can unleash what Tuter calls the best shooting touch on the team.

Ishizaki, a junior point guard, suffered through a miserable season last year, after starting regularly as a freshman. She has worked tirelessly over the summer, however, and Tuter believes she has her confidence back.

Senior Annie Mai, who joins Duda, Forry and Zdenek as a team captain, figures to add a spark off the bench. Mai averaged 8.1 points and a team-leading 3.3 assists last season.

Sophomore Keyonna Johnson, who averaged 3.7 points per game last season, will be counted upon to use her exceptional quickness to energize the team on both ends of the floor, Tuter said.

Barnes has a solid basketball IQ, Tuter said, and a burgeoning offensive game that, for now, is limited to within about one dribble of the basket.

Sophomores Rebecca Maessen and Mary Has, a transfer from Long Beach State, as well as freshmen Desiree Strings and Raquel Theus, the daughter of the former NBA standout and now coach of the Sacramento Kings, Reggie Theus, figure to provide depth.

Senior Haley Tull, sophomore Ka’Jahna Johnson and junior Jana Santiago, a former member of the scout team, also help comprise a group Tuter said reflects her personality as a coach.

“I like this group a lot,” Tuter said. “I think we’ll be a better team defensively and I think our basketball IQ is higher than it has been. Offensively, I think we’ll be more well-rounded.”

The Anteaters, who trounced Cal Baptist, 108,-66, in an exhibition Nov. 2, open the season today at 5:35 p.m. at Crawford Court against New Mexico State.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.