Broncos force ‘Eaters to work

IRVINE — Time is, ultimately, on the side of the UC Irvine women’s basketball team, which is in the early stages of a transitional season under first-year coach Molly Goodenbour.

But that fact was somewhat less than obvious in the Anteaters’ 78-73 overtime loss to Division II Cal Poly Pomona in an exhibition game Saturday at the Bren Events Center.

The more time elapsed against the Broncos, the dimmer things got for the hosts, who led for all but one minute, 58 seconds of regulation, only to see victory slip away.

After leading, 58-50, with 5:17 left in regulation, UCI was outscored 15-3, to find itself in a 65-61 hole.

Sophomore Rebecca Maessen, who led all players with 23 points, made a six-foot runner to cut the deficit in half with 19 seconds left. Then, after Cal Poly’s Unique Anderson missed two free throws in the double bonus with 17 seconds left, Maessen made two clutch free throws with 11 ticks remaining to force the extra session.

The Broncos scored the first three points of overtime and never trailed.

“Whenever you’re a Division II school and you can beat a Division I, it’s a good thing,” said Goodenbour, who had a 52-11 record the last two seasons at Division II Chico State.

Goodenbour, whose UCI team was limited to eight available players due to injuries and eligibility issues, said she did see some good things.

“It’s not OK to lose, but I did see some things that we can build on and improve on,” said Goodenbour, who was hired in August when former coach Molly Tuter resigned following a 7-24 season in 2007-08.

“Obviously, our depth isn’t what we need it to be right now,” said Goodenbour. “I thought we had some kids playing out of position who made some very nice adjustments. I thought Kirian [Ishisaki] and Kiki [Belen, both guards] did a nice job playing the four spot for us … And we put our four-around offense in today at shoot-around and were in that about 40% of the game.”

UCI shot 50% from the field in the first 20 minutes to build a 37-32 advantage, but made just eight of 24 field-goal attempts in the second half, then went three for eight from the field in overtime.

Cal Poly, which outrebounded the Anteaters, 41-36, and committed two fewer turnovers than UCI’s 25, made 11 of 27 second-half field-goal tries (40.7%) and was four of seven from the field in overtime.

Ishizaki, a senior, scored 12 points, while Belen, a freshman from Las Vegas, Nev., came off the bench to score all 11 of her points in the first half.

Foul trouble plagued both teams and UCI lost both Belden and starting guard Mary Has to five fouls, the latter having scored four points in only 17 minutes.

Belden was four for seven from the field, while Ishizaki made five of nine field-goal tries.

Maessen added eight rebounds and a team-high six assists, but was seven of 22 from the field, including three of 10 from three-point range.

Kim Barnes, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, had 12 rebounds and seven points and junior Keyonna Johnson had nine points for the ’Eaters.

UCI was without junior Kelly Cochran (recovering from knee surgery), junior posts Jovana Petrovic and Miljana Cejic (transfers awaiting NCAA clearance), and freshman Rana Simpson (wrist injury).