Pacific's Rally Falls Short In 70-62 Loss to UCSB

Jan. 27, 2007

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Pacific men's basketball team rallied from a 20-point second half deficit to pull within three in the final minute, but the Tigers' rally fell short in a 70-62 Big West Conference loss to UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

With the loss, the Tigers fell to 7-12 overall and 3-3 in Big West Conference action. UCSB improved to 13-6 overall (5-2 Big West).

The game started with a shootout, as the Gauchos took an early 14-12 lead with both teams shooting over 50.0%. The Tigers hit a dry spell, hitting just two of their next 14 attempts to fall behind 24-14 with 5:52 remaining. Pacific got three three-pointers from junior Solomon HorseChief (Muskogee, Okla.) in the final five minutes to stay within striking distance, as the Gauchos led 32-23 at the break.

The second half started with an 8-0 run by the Gauchos, who eventually pushed the lead to 20 three times in the second half. The Tigers found themselves down 52-32 with 11:15 left in the game and were able to chip away at the lead. A quick 8-0 run got the lead down to 52-40 with 8:29 left, but UCSB was able to get the lead back up to 17 with a 5-0 run of its own. Continuing to chip away, the Tigers were down 11 (62-51) with 1:28 left in the game. Two free throws by senior Reggie Vezia (Vacaville, Calif.), a three-pointer by sophomore Steffan Johnson (Kent, Wash.) and three free throws by HorseChief over the next 25 seconds made it 62-59 with 43 seconds to play.

After Alex Harris made one of two free throws for UCSB, HorseChief missed a deep three that would have cut the lead to one. The Gauchos made 7-of-8 free throws the rest of the way to get the victory.

HorseChief led the Tigers in scoring with 17 points, while Vezia added 13 points and Johnson had 12 points.

The Tigers shot just 34.0% for the game, while the Gauchos hit 55.0% of their shots.

Harris led UCSB with 27 points.

Pacific is next in action at UC Irvine on Thursday, Feb. 1. Game time is 7:05 p.m. for the KVMD/Comcast SportsNet telecast.

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