March 25, 2009

Box Score

Peoria, Ill. - The Pacific men's basketball team dropped a 59-49 decision at Bradley on Wednesday, March 25 in the semi-final round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

The loss gave Pacific a 21-13 record for the 2008-09 season, while Bradley improved to 21-14 overall.

Pacific fell behind 6-2 in the early going after a pair of three-point plays by the Braves. The Tigers used a 9-2 run to pull ahead 11-8, getting a three-pointer by senior Chad Troyer (Seattle, Wash.) and four points from junior Lavar Neufville (Fairfield, Calif.) The Braves again pulled ahead 20-15, but Pacific responded with a 10-0 run to go up 25-20 after senior Michael Kirby (North Highlands, Calif.) hit a three-pointer and sophomore Sam Willard (Pierre, S.D.) scored on a dunk with 1:53 to play in the half. The Braves held Pacific scoreless the rest of the way, hitting a pair of three-pointers to take a 26-25 halftime lead.

Bradley opened the second half with a 9-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 35-27 with 15:51 to play in the game. The Tigers used a 9-3 stretch with three-pointers from Neufville and Kirby over the next four minutes to cut the lead to 38-36. Another five point spurt took the Bradley lead back to seven (43-36), but the Tigers battled back again with a three-pointer from senior Bryan LeDuc (Corona, Calif.) and a jumper in the lane from sophomore Terrell Smith (Federal Way, Wash.) to get it back to 43-41 with 8:00 remaining. After the Braves pulled back ahead by eight at 51-43, the Tigers got six points from Kirby on a three-pointer and three free throws to get Pacific back within four (53-49) with 2:47 to go. That was as close as the Tigers would get though, as Bradley scored the final seven points to finish it off.

Kirby led the Tigers with 14 points, including three three-pointers. He finished his two year Pacific career as the all-time three-point percentage leader. Willard had 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Bradley shot 52.4 percent in the second half and ended up with a 44.2 percentage for the game, while the Tigers shot just 38.8 percent from the field. Pacific's 21 wins tied for the eighth most wins in school history.