Feb. 23, 2008

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Pacific men's basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 18-9 overall with an 84-75 non-conference victory over San Jose State (12-14) in O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters action on Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

There was a different look in the starting lineup for the Tigers, as freshmen Terrell Smith (Federal Way, Wash.) and Sam Willard (Pierre, S.D.), sophomore C.J. Morgan (Elk Grove, Calif.) and juniors James Doran (Cameron Park, Calif.) and Bryan LeDuc (Corona, Calif.) all started for Pacific. Smith was the only starter in this game to have made a start this year for the Tigers.

The Tigers took a 13-11 lead, but the Spartans responded with a 12-2 run to take a 23-16 lead with 9:41 left in the half. Tim Pierce scored five points in the run by San Jose State. Pacific bounced right back with a 17-6 run, paced by eight points from Junior Chad Troyer (Seattle, Wash.) to take a 33-29 lead. After the Spartans cut the lead to 35-34 with 1:36 left, Doran scored Pacific's final five points to take a 40-34 halftime lead.

A quick start to the second half by the Spartans took the Pacific lead down to 42-40 with 18:09 remaining. The Tigers again responded with a 10-4 run to burst out to a 52-44 lead with 13:53 remaining and Pacific's lead would not fall below five the rest of the way. With the Tigers leading 75-65 with 3:15 remaining, the Spartans scored the next five points to cut the lead to 75-70. LeDuc then hit two free throws to get the lead back to seven (77-70), but the Tigers missed five of the next eight free throws to allow the Spartans a chance. LeDuc hit his final four free throw attempts in the final :11 seconds to seal the win for the Tigers.

In a game with 48 total fouls, each team shot 30 free throws. Pacific out-scored the Spartans 60-15 in bench scoring.

Troyer led four Tigers in double figures with 19 points. Junior Steffan Johnson (Kent, Wash.) added 15 points, junior Anthony Brown (Sacramento, Calif.) added 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds and Doran scored 10 points.

The Tigers are next in action with their final home game of the season on Thursday, Feb. 28 against UC Davis. Game time is 7:00 p.m.