Jan. 22, 2009

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - The Pacific men's basketball team could not overcome a hot shooting night by Cal Poly on Thursday, Jan. 22 as the Tigers suffered a 76-60 defeat at the hands of the Mustangs in the Alex G. Spanos Center.

The loss dropped Pacific to 10-7 on the season and 3-3 in the Big West Conference, while Cal Poly moved to 4-12 overall and 1-5 in the Big West.

The Tigers scored the opening points of the first half on a three-pointer by sophomore Terrell Smith (Federal Way, Wash.). The 3-0 advantage was the only Pacific lead of the game, as the Mustangs answered with a 7-0 run to take a 7-3 lead and did not trail again. After Cal Poly pulled ahead by four at 15-11, junior Lavar Neufville (Fairfield, Calif.) scored on a layup to make it 15-13 with 11:29 remaining in the first half. The Mustangs then distanced themselves from the Tigers, getting eight points from Chaz Thomas in a 19-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 34-13 lead with 6:38 to go in the first frame. After the Tigers got another basket from Smith, the Mustangs again used an 8-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at 42-15 with 2:50 to play. Four Tigers scored in a 10-0 run over the final 3:10 of the first half and pull the Tigers back to a halftime score of 42-25.

The Mustangs got a three-pointer from Lorenzo Keeler to start to second half and take the lead back to 20 at 45-25, but the Tigers responded with an 8-2 run to cut it back to 47-33 with 16:00 left in the game. Again the Mustangs extended the lead back to 22 with a 10-2 run to hold a 57-35 lead with 12:59 left in the game. Pacific got eight points from senior James Doran (Cameron Park, Calif.) in a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 57-45. Cal Poly then got five points from Lorenzo Keeler in a 7-0 run to get the lead back to 19 (64-45) with 6:27 left and the Tigers would not get closer than within 16 the rest of the way as the Mustangs cruised to their first league win.

Doran led the Tigers with 12 points, while senior Bryan LeDuc (Corona, Calif.) added 10 points. Sophomore Sam Willard (Pierre, S.D.) and Neufville each had a team-high eight rebounds.

The Mustangs were led by Keeler's career-high 25 points, including 19 points in the second half.

Cal Poly shot 57.7 percent in the first half from the field, including eight makes out of 11 attempts from three-point range. Pacific shot just 36.2 percent from the field, but had 15 offensive rebounds to account for 21 second chance points. The Mustangs also shot 84.2 percent from the free throw line (16-19), while the Tigers struggled at just 47.4 percent (9-19).

Pacific returns to the court on Saturday, Jan. 24 as the Tigers host UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.