UC Irvine Is at a Loss Against UC Santa Barbara

GOLETA — UC Irvine’s leading scorer, Jeff Von Lutzow, sat on the bench at the start of the second half of the Anteaters’ Big West Conference game against UC Santa Barbara on Monday night.

So did second-leading scorer Keith Stewart. So did third-leading scorer Lloyd Mumford.

The Anteaters trailed by 15 after the first half of their 85-67 loss to the Gauchos. They had committed 14 turnovers, allowed Santa Barbara to run with abandon and watched the Gauchos shoot 60%.

So Irvine Coach Rod Baker let three starters watch the first 6:08 of the second half from the bench, sending a lineup onto the court that was averaging a total of 19.3 points per game.

“The guys that started the second half got tired, that’s why I put the others back in,” Baker said.

The Anteaters (5-13 overall, 3-8 in the Big West) backslid after having won three of their last five games. Irvine finished with 23 turnovers and only 34.9% from the field. The Anteaters made only 19 of 37 free throws.

Santa Barbara (12-8, 7-8), led by Ray Kelly’s career-high 16 assists, shot 58.9%.

Kelly entered the game needing 16 assists to break Carlton Davenport’s school career record of 445, which he achieved with 3:34 to play when Kyle Milling dunked off his fast-break pass. Milling, a freshman who has scored career highs in four successive games, led Santa Barbara with 15 points.

“Santa Barbara was really committed to going up and down the floor,” Baker said. “They had something on their minds. If in fact we were in a bad way, they helped make it that way.”

Von Lutzow led Irvine with 22 points and 13 rebounds despite playing only 29 minutes. Stewart added 15.

Santa Barbara’s lead was only 17-14 in the first half before a 15-4 run fueled by Irvine turnovers, fouls and poor shots.

With the substitutes in the lineup to start the second half, trailing, 45-30, the Anteaters fell behind by as many as 23, but gave way to the starters having lost only four points. The starters took over with 13:52 to play, trailing 57-38. Irvine got no closer than 14 points thereafter.