March 2, 2006
Box Score
Stockton, Calif. - Senior Christian Maraker (Varberg, Sweden) delivered his 14th double-double of the season to lead the Pacific men's basketball team to a 64-36 win over UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, Mar. 2. With the victory, the Tigers improved their record to 21-7 (11-2 Big West) while UCSB fell to 13-13 (5-8 Big West).
The victory clinched the Tigers at least a share of the Big West Conference title, and earned Pacific the No. 1 seed in the Big West Conference Tournament. The Tigers own the tiebreaker over UC Irvine due to a season sweep of UCSB, while UC Irvine split their pair of games with the Gauchos.
Pacific came out from the opening tip and dominated UCSB, amassing a 22-0 lead with 10:38 to go in the first half on senior guard Johnny Gray's (Agoura Hills, Calif.) fourth consecutive field goal. UCSB missed their first 15 shots from the field, before a tip-in by Cecil Brown with 10:14 remaining in the half made the score 22-2.
Maraker completed his 14th double-double of the season by halftime as the senior forward scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the first half of play. For the half, the Tigers shot 46.9% from the field and held the Gauchos to a season-low 12.9% shooting. Pacific led by as many as 24 in the first half, and led by 31 with :28 seconds to go before UCSB's final field goal made the score 64-36.
Maraker went on to finish the game with 22 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. He also added a season high three blocks in 34 minutes of play.
Redshirt freshman Anthony Brown (Sacramento, Calif.) chipped in with seven points and tied a career-high with 12 rebounds off the bench.
The 36 points, 13 field goals, 21.7 field goal percentage, and 18.2 three-point percentage tallied by the Gauchos in the game were all opponent lows for Pacific on the season. UCSB was led by Josh Davis off the bench, who scored eight points in 19 minutes.
The Tigers return to action on Saturday, Mar. 4 as Pacific concludes its regular season schedule at 3 p.m. in the Alex G. Spanos Center against Cal Poly. The game will be the final contest for Pacific seniors Johnny Gray, Christian Maraker and Mike Webb (Lancaster, Calif.).
