‘Eaters given upset loss

BY BARRY FAULKNER

IRVINE — Less than 48 hours after UC Irvine Coach Pat Douglass ascribed the “on any given night” axiom to the Big West Conference men’s basketball season, the Anteaters found themselves unwilling recipients of just such an unlikely scenario Monday.

Visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which came in with a conference-worst 3-8 record, opened its conference season with a 95-81 triumph at the Bren Events Center.

The Mustangs, who had not led by more than 11 at any point this season, claimed a 42-26 halftime lead and upped the cushion to 18 by opening the second-half scoring.

The Anteaters (7-7, 1-1 in conference), used some hot three-point shooting to whittle the deficit to 56-52 with 13:01 left.

But having expended so much energy to initiate its comeback, the Anteaters were exploited by the Mustangs, who pulled away to post their first victory in 20 days.

“That’s a great win for them,” said Douglass, who did his part to try and inspire the UCI players. “It’s a bad loss for us. I thought we’d taken some [positive] steps against Santa Barbara [a 57-55 conference-opening win Saturday at home]. We played with great tenacity [Saturday], but tonight, [the Mustangs], who didn’t have a game over the weekend, came in here and got after us. They did a good job.”

Cal Poly got a combined 61 points from starting guards Lorenzo Keeler and Kyle Odister.

Keeler, who made six of 11 three-point attempts, including four of six in the opening half, finished with a career-high 38 points. He was 12 of 18 from the field and also buried all eight of his free-throw attempts.

Odister netted 15 of his 23 points after intermission, including three straight driving layins during a 97-second stretch late in the second half that helped the visitors hold off UCI.

“They took our guards into the lane,” said Douglass, who saw the visitors produce a 26-22 advantage on points in the paint.

Cal Poly also used a 33-24 rebounding advantage to post a 27-8 edge on second-chance points.

The Mustangs made 16 of 24 field-goal attempts after halftime (66.7%) and finished at 60.4% from the field (32 for 56). They were 11 of 19 from three-point range, an impressive 57.9%.

Sophomore Eric Wise scored 25 points to lead the Anteaters, who forced 12 of Cal Poly’s 14 turnovers after halftime.

UCI senior guard Michael Hunter also helped the hosts’ comeback. He had half of his team’s six second-half three-pointers and scored 18 second-half points to produce a career-high 24.

Hunter was six for 11 from the field, five of nine from threedom, but UCI finished nine of 23 (39.1%) from beyond the arc.

UCI also missed nine of its 35 free throws, while Cal Poly netted 20 of 23 from the foul line.“We dug ourselves too big of a hole in the first half,” Douglass said. “We got down 16 ... I told them during a timeout in the first half that we needed to cut it to seven or so [by halftime] and not let it get out of hand. And it got out of hand.”

Douglass did his best to help his team eradicate its early shortcomings, most of which he attributed to Cal Poly’s strong start.

Douglass stood under his team’s basket to watch his players warm up for the second half and strode onto the floor to argue for a foul call to earn a technical foul less than two minutes into the second half.

Junior guard Darren Moore added 14 points for the Anteaters, and also collected five rebounds to match sophomore reserve Adam Folker for team-high honors.

Odister was eight of nine from the field, his only miss coming on one of his four three-point attempts.

Cal Poly, led by first-year coach Joe Callero, was 6-8 sophomore Will Donahue, its leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, due to an eligibility issue.

Big West Conference

Cal Poly SLO 95, UC Irvine 81

CPSLO – Taylor 8, J. Lewis 6, Keeler 38, Odister 23, S. Lewis 9, Hanson 6, Brown 3, Darling 2.

3-pt. goals – Keeler 6, Odister 3, Hanson 2.

Fouled out – Taylor.

Technicals – S. Lewis.

UC Irvine – Wise 25, Atkinson 0, Hunter 24, Moore 14, Wilder 3, Losonsky 6, Folker 4, Kim 3, Rembert 2.

3-pt. goals – Hunter 5, Moore 3, Wilder 1.

Technicals – Douglass 1.

Halftime – CPSLO, 42-26.