UC Irvine Got Just the Miracle It Needed : Anteaters Beat Oral Roberts, 92-91, in Overtime on Last-Second Tip-in

TULSA —  Expect A Miracle, huh?

The slogan painted in blue-and-white script on the sidelines at Oral Roberts’ Mabee Center drew the attention of UC Irvine guard Mike Hess moments after teammate Frank Woods’ out-of-nowhere tip at the buzzer had given the Anteaters a stunning 92-91 overtime victory over Oral Roberts Saturday night.

“Look at that,” Hess said, grabbing the arm of assistant coach Mike Bokosky and pointing to the message embossed on the floor.

“I guess we got one.”

You could call it that. Irvine really had no business winning this game--not after falling behind by 10 points in the second half, not after blowing a seven-point lead with 1:25 left in regulation, not after getting knocked aside like stuffed toys whenever Oral Roberts wanted to score inside, not after Titan guard Peter Partain went to the free throw line with a one-point lead with seconds seconds left in overtime.

But when Partain missed the front end of a one-and-one, it triggered an unlikely set of events that resulted in the Anteaters’ third victory in their first four games.

Scott Brooks, the smallest Anteater at 5-feet 11-inches, grabbed the rebound and dashed downcourt. In a race against the clock, Brooks sprinted down the right side of the floor, wriggled free of a defender and cast off an off-balance 10-footer with three seconds remaining.

The ball kicked off the front of the rim and Brooks’ heart sank.

“I felt so helpless,” Brooks said. “I thought to myself, ‘God, I just lost the game.’ ”

Oral Roberts Coach Ted Owens had the same idea.

“I felt pretty good at the time,” he said.

But enough time remained for Woods, a 6-5 reserve forward, to angle his way around a pair of Titans and outleap them them to the ball.

Woods flicked the ball back toward the basket. The ball hit the heel of the rim and bounced off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

When gravity regained control, the fell straight through the hoop. Irvine had won and within seconds, Woods was gang-tackled in the key, swarmed under by a mass of powder-blue uniforms.

“That was scary,” Woods said with a laugh. “You don’t want to be on the bottom of that pile.”

Especially when 6-foot 8-inch, 240-pound Wayne Engelstad is the first to greet you with a crushing bear hug and then fall on top of you.

In a jubilant visitors locker room, Anteater Coach Bill Mulligan poked his head in and shouted at Woods, “Didn’t I tell you to hang around Brooks?”

Woods nodded. One way to describe it is being at the right place at the right time. Woods, however, had a different term for the play.

“I was basket-hangin’ ,” Woods said. “We practice that.

“I was kinda trailing the play. (Brooks) went up to shoot and they (Oral Roberts) went to the ball. That left me there. I didn’t hear any buzzer, so I tipped it.

“After I did, I thought it was gonna hang up there forever.”

Owens couldn’t get over the fact that the Titans’ inside game, which had carried Oral Roberts that far, faltered at the critical instant.

“I don’t know where our people were on that tip,” Owens said. “Three of them went over to Brooks’ side, but that still left us with two under the basket.”

Until then, the imbalance inside between the two teams had been fairly ugly. Oral Roberts center Maurice Smith had 17 points on 7-of-11 attempts, power forward Clinton Hinton added 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting and small forward Akin Akin-Otiko hit 8 of 15 shots for 16 points.

“We had so many problems with their physical guys inside,” Mulligan said. “Our guys in there are so skinny. Finally, I had to borrow a page out of Jerry Tarkanian’s book and play some zone on the road.”

With 1:25 remaining in the second half, Irvine seemed ready to cash in on such strategy. The Anteaters led, 81-74 . . . and then, suddenly, could do nothing right.

They left Titan reserve guard Kendell Mack unguarded--and Mack sank the first three-point field goal for Oral Roberts (1-2) this season.

They then failed to successfully in-bound the ball, with Rob Doktorczyk throwing it away to Akin-Otiko, who went in for an easy lay-in, cutting the deficit to two.

Guard Haywoode Workman then stole another Irvine pass with 37 seconds left and drove inside for a short bank shot that tied the score at 81-81 with 17 seconds left.

After a timeout, Anteater forward Mike Doktorczyk missed an open 10-foot turnaround jumper and the buzzer sounded to bring on an extra period.

In overtime, there would be more chances--and more misses--for Doktorczyk.

Doktorczyk failed to convert the front end of two one-on-one situations, helping Oral Roberts open as much as a four-point advantage. With 49 seconds to play, the Titans led by three, 91-88.

Irvine’s Joe Buchanan, who finished with 17 points, then took two shots. He made the first, pulling the Anteaters to within one, but missed a 12-footer with 9 seconds left. Partain was fouled on the rebounds and went to the foul line to try to wrap things up.

Instead, everything suddenly unraveled for Oral Roberts.

Woods, a junior transfer from Seward County College, Kan., soon would offer his tip to Irvine. Woods finished with 14 points, hitting 7 of 11 shots.

His final shot was received with the greatest appreciation in the Irvine locker room.

“Frank Woods is the man, “ said Brooks, pumping a fist in the air.

“That’s my roommate,” reserve guard Jason Turner boasted.

And from Mike Doktorczyk, whose earlier transgressions had been obscured and forgotten by the last tick of the clock:

“Thank you, Frank,” he said with a sigh. “Thank you very much.”