‘Eaters fall into UTC trap

ANAHEIM — The UC Irvine men’s basketball team was so good for 30-plus minutes Friday, it forced Tennessee at Chattanooga Coach John Shulman to throw up his hands.

Frustrated at not having come up with a defensive scheme to stop the Anteaters to that point, Shulman ordered a half-court trap that, in effect, forced his players to throw their hands into the passing lanes.

As it turned out, this was a devastating chain of events for UCI, which saw a 71-59 lead with 8:44 left, turn into an 85-80 loss to the Mocs (2-2) in the fourth-place semifinal of the inaugural Anaheim Classic at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“We just tried something new,” Shulman said of his last defensive resort, which helped create eight of UCI’s 21 turnovers in the final 8:43, during which time the Mocs outscored the Anteaters, 26-9.

UCI (2-3) will meet San Diego in the seventh-place game Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“We don’t press a lot, but we tried something new and it worked,” Shulman said. “It gave us energy and we fed off that energy. We had to get them out of rhythm. We were playing straight man and they were in rhythm and they were making shots. We went to a zone, they made shots. We went to our one-three-one, they made shots. We were in search, like I told the guys in our huddle, ‘Do you want to try our man? Our three? Our two? I don’t have any more. You want to play four, five, six? I don’t have any more [defenses].’ And so we just threw it out. That’s what’s crazy about this business. We threw out a [defense] we don’t work on a whole lot and it worked. It just gave us energy and it kind of took them out of their rhythm.”

UCI Coach Pat Douglass didn’t disagree.

“They went to the half-court trap and we had not gone against the half-court trap, and obviously it showed by the way we handled the ball,” Douglass said. “It was a game [in which] our guards had to take over and we weren’t able to [transfer to] the court, what we were trying to get accomplished. It does happen in basketball; people make comebacks. But I think we assisted the comeback by some of our decision making. We just didn’t get into spots that we needed to [be in] to attack [the half-court trap]. We have no excuse.”

After Patrick Sanders was called for an offensive foul, Mocs junior guard Stephen McDowell hit a three-pointer to pull Chattanooga even, 73-73, with 5:24 left.

McDowell, who was five of five from three-point range and six of seven from the field in the second half to account for scored 18 of his game-high 26 points, then followed an ill-advised UCI pass with a free throw to give the designated visitors their first lead since 10-9.

After another UCI turnover, McDowell drained his final three for a 77-73 lead with 4:28 remaining.

Trey Harris, a junior guard who scored a career-high 16 points on five-of-eight shooting, including four of seven from beyond the arc, netted a three from the right corner to pull UCI within 81-80 with 1:39 left.

Chattanooga countered with a layup out of its half-court offense to up the lead to three and UCI countered with missed three-point tries by Michael Hunter and Harris.

Eventually, UCI fouled intentionally to put UTC, which came into the game shooting a dismal 58.1% from the foul line, on the line with 32.2 seconds left. Senior Kevin Bridgewaters, who had made all six if his foul shots to that point, made the first of a double-bonus situation for an 84-80 lead.

UTC made 19 of 24 free-throw attempts (79.2%).

Poor passes by Sanders and Harris produced turnovers on the final two UCI possessions, resulting in a bitter defeat.

“This would have been a good win for us,” Douglass said. “We respect their program. They are a very explosive team. But this is a tough loss and not an easy one to swallow.”

Sanders finished with 21 points, making eight of 12 from the field. He also led UCI with five rebounds, though he had a team-worst seven turnovers.

“We had a perfect game plan and we executed it for 35 minutes,” Sanders said. “We were prepared [for the trap], that was the frustrating part. We just weren’t in the right spots. We’ve practiced against it, but [the Mocs] disguised it and we didn’t execute at all. There is always an open man in the trap, but our alignment was not what it was supposed to be.”

UCI shot 56% from the field, but UTC shot 66.7% after halftime to finish 29 of 48 from the field (60.4%). The Mocs made six of nine three-point tries after halftime to finish eight of 16 for the game.

Darren Fells added 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals off the bench for the Anteaters.

Anaheim Classic

Fourth-place semifinal

Tennessee at Chattanooga 85, UC Irvine 80

UTC – Doaks 12, Watts 2, Hartwell 5, McDowell 26, Bridgewaters 17, Gwynne 11, Goffney 9, Sheard 3.

3-pt. goals – McDowell 5, Gwynne 1, Sheard 1, Goffney 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

UCI – Sanders 21, Rodenberg 4, Bland 4, DeCasas 9, Hunter 8, Harris 16, Fells 13, Awaji 5.

3-pt. goals – Harris 4, DeCasas 3, Hunter 2, Sanders 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

Halftime – UCI, 46-39.

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