March 1, 2007

Final Stats

Santa Barbara, Calif. - The Pacific men's basketball team dropped a 64-49 decision at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, Mar. 1 at the Events Center.

The Tigers are now 11-17 overall and 5-8 in the Big West Conference while the Gauchos are 17-10 and 8-5.

Both teams struggled early as the teams were scoreless for the first three minutes. After a 15-15 tie with 9:15 left, the Gauchos used a 7-0 run over the next four minutes to take a 22-15 lead. The Gauchos held that advantage the rest of the half, taking a 29-23 halftime lead.

Sophomore Anthony Brown (Sacramento, Calif.) scored the Tigers' first basket of the second half to cut UCSB's lead to four, but the Gauchos scored the next six points to take a 10 point lead. UCSB's lead would not fall below seven the rest of the way. After the Gauchos used a 13-0 run to take a 20 point lead (53-33), Pacific scored the next nine points. Senior Anthony Esparza (Bakersfield, Calif.) keyed the run with seven consecutive points.

Despite out-rebounding the Gauchos 36-33 and 18-11 on the offensive end, the Tigers were outscored 24-18 in second chance points. Pacific shot just 35.2% from the field (19-54) and 30.0% (3-10) from three-point range.

Esparza led the Tigers with 16 points, while Brown added 10 points and 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season. Senior Wolfgang Raffety (Placerville, Calif.) added 11 points for the Tigers. Alex Harris led UCSB with 22 points.

The Tigers are next in action at Cal Poly on Saturday, Mar. 3. Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m.