Feb. 21, 2009
Box Score
San Diego, Calif. -
The Tiger men's basketball team dropped a 66-60 decision at University of San Diego on Saturday, Feb. 21 in an ESPNU BracketBuster Game. Pacific is now 14-11 overall, while the Toreros are 14-14 on the year.
Pacific held early leads of 7-4 and 9-8, before the Toreros took a 13-9 lead with a 5-0 run at the 11:37 mark of the first half. The Tigers then took the lead back at 14-13 after five straight points from senior Chad Troyer (Seattle, Wash.). Holding a 26-24 lead with 3:38 left in the half, the Toreros outscored Pacific 8-0 over the rest of the half to hold a 34-24 lead at the break.
After San Diego extended the lead to 12 (40-28) with 16:06 to play, the Tigers climbed right back into the game. Pacific got five points from senior Bryan LeDuc (Corona, Calif.) and six points from senior Anthony Brown (Sacramento, Calif.) in a huge 15-4 run to cut the margin to just one (44-43) with 9:53 remaining. San Diego got a three from Devin Ginty on the other end to get the lead back to four, and the Toreros extended the lead back to 60-49 with 1:15 to play. The Tigers made another late run, cutting the lead to 61-57 with :30 seconds left following a three-pointer by senior Michael Kirby (North Highlands, Calif.). After San Diego's Matt Dorr made one of two free throws, the Tigers missed a pair of three-point attempts, and San Diego hit a few more free throws as time ran out on the Pacific comeback.
Sophomore Sam Willard (Pierre, S.D.) tied his career-high with 14 points and had a game-high seven rebounds. Troyer added 11 points and LeDuc scored 10 for the Tigers.
The Toreros shot 52.4 percent from the field, holding the Tigers to just 43.1 percent. San Diego hit six of their first eight three-pointers on the way to making 9-of-15 for the game (60.0 percent). San Diego out-rebounded Pacific 28-26, making the Tigers 0-10 when being out-boarded on the season.
Gyno Pomare led San Diego with 16 points.
The Tigers are next in action at home agianst UC Davis on Wednesday, Feb. 25. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Alex G. Spanos Center.
