Irvine Overcomes an Errant Green

It was a night to remember for Jerry Green, though not for all the right reasons.

UC Irvine’s standout senior guard was scoreless in the first half, finished with a season-low 10 points and committed two critical turnovers in the final minute.

Yet, after the Anteaters pulled out a 62-58 Big West Conference victory Thursday over Pacific, many of the 3,104 at the Bren Center chanted, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!”

All was forgiven after Green sparked a comeback from a 15-point halftime deficit and sealed Irvine’s eighth consecutive victory by grabbing a rebound and making two free throws with 3.8 seconds left to end the scoring, .

“That’s going to happen sometimes,” Green said of his sub-par performance. “I’m not going to worry about it as long as we win. ... I’m glad it happened now than later in the season in the Big West tournament.”

First-place Irvine (13-4, 6-0 in conference play) gained a measure of revenge against Pacific (11-5, 3-3), which upset the Anteaters in the semifinals of the Big West tournament last March.

“We responded to the challenge in the second half,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “In the first half, [Pacific was] getting all the loose balls and the extra rebounds.”

Center Adam Parada led four Anteaters in double figures with 15 points and also had 11 rebounds.

Rob Fernas

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Cal State Northridge 66, Long Beach State 54--The Matadors have been taking baby steps, but they took a giant one in beating the 49ers at the Pyramid.

Markus Carr had 22 points and five steals to lead Northridge (5-10, 4-2 Big West), which won on the road for only the second time this season and has won three of its last four games. Long Beach (5-12, 1-5) lost its third in a row.

The Matadors made three of four field goals in the final 4:21 and made eight of 10 free throws during that stretch. Long Beach, meanwhile, did not make a field goal in the final 4:41.

“This team has come a long way this season,” Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell said. “To show the kind of character they showed tonight on somebody else’s court shows they have grown up a lot.”

The Matadors moved into a tie for third in the Big West, and play first-place UC Irvine Saturday night with a chance to move into second place.

Ron Johnson and Travis Reed scored 12 points apiece for Long Beach.

Peter Yoon

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Utah State 68, UC Riverside 42--In front of a school-record sellout crowd and a regional television audience, the Highlanders developed stage fright as the Aggies (13-3, 5-2) led virtually from start to finish at Riverside.

It was the first regional telecast for Riverside and a raucous 3,168 showed up at the Student Recreation Center with several hundred turned away. Lloyd Cook gave the crowd its only highlight with a basket to start the game.

Utah State scored the next seven points and quickly built the lead to 11 with nine minutes gone. The Aggies led, 34-18, at halftime.

Guard Tony Brown burned Riverside all night with a season-high five three-pointers and a game-high 20 points.

Riverside Coach John Masi said he sensed his team was emotionally spent beforehand.

“Im not ashamed at the way we played,” Masi said. “I kind of expected this but I didn’t expect that it would happen to this extent. It got to be a situation where we played to the hype of the game instead of just playing the game.

“Maybe this is the best way to get that message across.”

Jeremy Vague scored 17 points for the Aggies. In contrast, not one Highlander reached double figures as they shot a season-low 33.3%.

“Cook, Vili Morton and John Galbreath each finished with eight points for Riverside.

Eric Stephens

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Idaho 63, Cal State Fullerton 59--The Titans (3-12, 0-6 Big West) came up short again, falling to the Vandals (5-11, 2-5) before a crowd of 717 at Fullerton. It was Fullerton’s seventh loss in a row.

“I’d like to find a win somewhere in the last twelve games,” Fullerton Coach Donny Daniels said. “Staying close isn’t good enough. This is a game we could have won if we had made a few key stops.”

Idaho didn’t lead until David Howell’s layup with 8:50 left, giving the Vandals a 38-37 edge.

Kevin Richardson scored 17 points for Fullerton.

Michelle Gardner