Jan. 19, 2008

Box Score

Fullerton, Calif. - Trailing by 14 points at halftime, the Pacific women's basketball squad made two thrilling second half surges to get within three points but eventually fell to Cal State Fullerton, 94-83, on Saturday, Jan. 19.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 7-11 on the season and 2-3 in the Big West Conference, while the Titans moved to 3-13 overall and 2-3 in conference play.

Coming off a big road victory against UC Irvine on Thursday night, the Tigers started strong Saturday versus the Titans. A balanced scoring attack keyed the Tigers early as Pacific bounced out to a 13-6 lead in the opening four minutes. Juniors Whitney Price (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Janae Young (Sacramento, Calif.) led the Tigers' burst with four early points.

Moments later with the Tigers holding a 17-10 edge, the hometown Titans used a 10-2 run to take the lead at 20-19 with 11:19 remaining in the half.

After trading buckets and the lead twice, Cal State Fullerton found their groove behind an 8-0 run to build a 30-23 lead with nine minutes left.

A free throw from junior Amy VanHollebeke (San Diego, Calif.) and a triple by freshman Beckett Brennan (Littleton, Colo.) cut the deficit to 30-27, however, the Titans scored 19 of the next 21 points to mount a 49-29 lead.

Pacific rallied down the stretch of the half, capped by a last second three-pointer from Brennan and went into the locker room trailing 50-36 at the break.

The Tigers continued their comeback march by scoring the opening seven points of the second half to bring the game back to single digits. Junior Karen Dawkins (Colorado Springs, Colo.) led the charge this time with four points in just over the first minute of play.

In position to regain control of the game, Pacific earned their first chance near the 12-minute mark as back-to-back three-pointers from sophomore Jasmine Dana (Bakersfield, Calif.) and Brennan pulled the Tigers within just three points at 66-63 with 11:13 left to play.

Unfortunately three costly turnovers derailed that opportunity as Cal State Fullerton pushed the lead back to 10 at 76-66 with just over eight minutes remaining.

With just over five minutes to go, the deficit was once again 10 points at 84-74. One more time the Tigers revved up their offense to make a charge. Sophomore Emma Head (San Diego, Calif.) got the Tigers rolling with consecutive layups, then Young nailed her only three-pointer of the game to pull Pacific within one possession at 84-81 with 3:32 left in the game.

The Tigers' rally, however, came up just short as the Tigers came up dry from the field the rest of the way.

VanHollebeke led Pacific with 16 points in the loss, while Head and Young each chipped in 14 points. Price tallied a career-high 11 points and led Pacific with nine rebounds.

Cal State Fullerton got a game-high 22 points from Lauren Chow and 21 points from Toni Thomas.

The Titans shot an impressive 55% from the field in the contest, while Pacific was 27-for-55 to finish at 49%.

Pacific returns to the court on Jan. 24 as Pacific hosts Cal Poly at 7 p.m. in the Alex G. Spanos Center.