March 16, 2006
Box Score
Salt Lake City, Utah - The No. 13 seeded Pacific men's basketball team dropped a double overtime, 88-76, decision to the No. 4 seeded Boston College Eagles in the first round of the NCAA Championship tournament on Thursday, March. 16. WIth the loss, the Tigers completed their 2005-06 season with a 24-8 overall record while the Eagles improved to 27-7.
In front of a national audience, the Pacific Tigers and the Boston College Eagles put on a first round show that typifies the essence of the NCAA tournament. For 50 minutes, the two teams battled back and forth, each fighting for the right to move on to the round of 32.
A game that would go to a second overtime began with an 8-0 run by the Eagles, forcing the Tigers to play catch up for the remainder of the first half. Despite the slow start, the Tigers regrouped out of the first official's timeout to cut the deficit to three at 13-10 with 12:35 remaining in the half. Another Eagles' run stretched the lead back up to eight but once again the Tigers fought back, this time evening the score at 28-28 with 4:18 remaining the opening period. During the 14-6 run, Pacific hit three of its four first half three-pointers, all coming from the senior trio of Mike Webb (Lancaster, Calif.), Johnny Gray (Agoura, Calif.) and Christian Maraker (Varberg, Sweden).
Starting from scratch in the second half, tied at 34-34, the Eagles opened the half with a 7-0 run, putting the Tigers on the heels for the second time in the game. Through the first 10 minutes of the half, the Eagles continued to pressure the Tigers, increasing their lead to as much as 13 points at 53-40 with 9:49 remaining in regulation. Turning to their seniors once again, the Tigers were able to cut the deficit to just two points using a 17-7 run to bring the game to 59-57 with 4:30 remaining.
After a field goal by the Eagles pushed the lead back to four points, Maraker took over the game for the Tigers, hitting three clutch free throws with :46 seconds left in the game to bring the Tigers within one. After two free-throws by Boston College put the game at 65-62 with :11 seconds remaining, the Tigers' senior captain stepped up again, knocking down his second shot from behind the arc to send the game into overtime, knotted at 65-65.
In the first overtime, the Tigers took control of the contest out of the gates, scoring the first six points of the overtime period on back-to-back three-pointers by Webb. The long range shots gave the Tigers their fourth lead of the game, forcing the Eagles to play from behind. Gray also hit from distance in the period, knocking down his third three-pointer of the game to put the Tigers up five at 74-69 with 1:12 remaining in the second overtime. Just as Pacific had done before them, the Eagles responded, scoring the final five points of the period, including a pair of free throws by Craig Smith with :04.3 seconds remaining in the first overtime period, to send the game into a second overtime period.
Tied at 74-74, the Eagles took back control of the lead and the game, outscoring the Tigers 9-0 to start the period. From there, Boston College closed out the game from the free-throw line, finally resting on a 12 point win and a trip to the round of 32.
Despite the loss, the Tigers took the Eagles to the brink of defeat, narrowly missing the biggest upset in recent Pacific history. On the day, the Tigers were led by Maraker who finished the game with a game-high 30 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 12-of-14 from the line, in his final college game. Maraker finishes his career as Pacific's third leading scorer in program history with 1,667 points.
Along with Maraker, Gray and Webb finished their college careers with double digit scoring efforts against the Eagles. Gray notched 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting while dishing out six assists in 45 minutes. Webb put down 12 points, all coming from behind the arc (4-of-9), including his six points in the beginning of the first overtime. The Tigers other double figure score was junior Michael White (Capitola, Calif.) who scored 10 points, notching the Tigers first and last field goals in the contest. Junior Anthony Esparza netted just three points but pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds in the game as the Tigers outrebounded the Eagles, 37-to-30, including 14 offensive rebounds.
The Eagles moved on to the round of 32 behind the scoring touches of Smith and Jared Dudley. Smith finished the game with a double-double, scoring 25 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. He was 10-of-17 from the field and 5-of-9 from the charity stripe, including the two last second free-throws that sent the game into a second overtime. Dudley put up 23 points, hitting 8-of-14 including two of Boston College's six three-pointers. Two other Eagles hit double digits with Louis Hinnant posting 14 points and Tyrese Rice scoring 11 points off of the bench for Boston College.
