Anteaters Turn Over First Place

LAS VEGAS —  UC Irvine lost its grasp on the ball and its grip on first place Monday night.

Twice in the final 40 seconds, Anteater possessions ended in turnovers and when Kevin Simmons’ 20-foot attempt at a tie with three seconds left hit the rim and bounded off, ninth-place Nevada Las Vegas had bounced Irvine out of first with a 63-60 Big West victory in front of 7,855 in the Thomas & Mack Center.

“We just couldn’t squeeze the ball tonight,” an irate Irvine Coach Rod Baker said.

Baker was more upset about his team’s first-half performance than he was the final few seconds, though. UNLV was clearly the more inspired team in the early going and the Rebels jumped to a 10-point halftime lead.

“I thought we were a tad complacent, which is difficult to understand,” Baker said. “You can’t take anything away from what [the Rebels] did, but we talked at halftime about having a little pride in being the first-place team.”

It’s a problem the Anteaters (13-9, 9-5 in conference) won’t have to worry about for a few days. Idle Long Beach State takes over first in the Big West with a 10-5 record.

Trailing by two points with 40 seconds left in the game, Irvine’s Raimonds Miglinieks drove the baseline and fired a pass under the basket to Dan Augulis. Augulis dropped the ball, grabbed it, and then lost it again in a battle with teammate Michael Tate. The Anteaters’ Paul Foster ended up with it, but the ball slipped out of his hands as he tried to go up for a shot.

Las Vegas (9-14, 6-9) got the rebound and guard Kevin James missed the front end of a one-and-one situation. Then Miglinieks’ pass into Foster was tipped away by Warren Rosegreen, James ended up with it, was fouled again and made one free throw to give the Rebels the margin of victory.

While the Anteaters were unsuccessfully playing follow the bouncing ball to the tune of 18 turnovers, UNLV committed only three.

“We could’ve been playing the Lakers and they would have turned the ball over more than three times,” Baker said, shaking his head.

Irvine probably figured it was a good omen when Simmons, who was 0 for 12 from the floor during the Anteaters’ 83-77 loss at New Mexico State Saturday night, made his first two shots, a fall-away, 10-foot baseline jumper and a driving reverse layup.

But things turned sour in a hurry for the Anteaters. With Mike Tyson sitting behind the UNLV bench, the Rebels looked poised for an early knockout. The Anteaters missed 10 of their first 15 shots while the Rebels were shooting 59% from the field en route to a 28-14 lead after 12 1/2 minutes.

Irvine got a couple of three-pointers from Brian Keefe, the co-Big West player of the week after scoring 61 points in the previous two games, late in the half to pull to within 10 at halftime.

The energized Rebels lost their shooting touch after halftime, however. They missed nine of their first 10 second-half shots and Irvine tied the score, 39-39, on a free throw by Miglinieks with 14 minutes 13 seconds remaining.

The Anteaters led by as many as six--52-46 with 9:42 to play--but the Rebels went on a 7-0 run to regain the lead and went ahead for good with 4:57 remaining on a fast-break layup by Jermaine “Sunshine” Smith. Irvine managed only two free throws after that.

Forwards Rosegreen (17 points) and Clayton Johnson (14) led the Rebels, who shot only 30% from the floor in the second half. Simmons and Keefe each had 14 for Irvine.

“We could have, and should have, played better,” Baker said. “They played with a purpose, with something to prove I guess, but we allowed them to accomplish it.”