March 10, 2011

Box Score

Anaheim, Calif. - The Tigers' season ended with a 79-67 loss to UC Santa Barbara in the Quarterfinal Round of the ampm Big West Tournament in Anaheim on Thursday, Mar. 10. The Tigers finished the season 16-15, while the Gauchos improved to 16-13.

Pacific took an early 7-4 lead after the Tigers scored five straight, capped by a three-pointer from sophomore Allen Huddleston (Merced, Calif.). After senior Nyika Williams (Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) hit a pair of free throws to give the Tigers an 11-8 lead with 14:29 left, the Gauchos went on a 13-2 run over the next seven minutes to take a 21-13 lead. Huddleston hit a three-pointer with 3:18 remaining to cut the lead to 26-20, but the Tigers would not score again in the first half as the Gauchos added a pair of treys to make it 32-20 at the break. Huddleston was 4-7 from the field in the first half, but the rest of the team combined to go 3-19. No Tiger other than Huddleston scored in the final 9:22 of the first half.

The Tigers and Gauchos traded baskets over the first three minutes of the second half, before UCSB took control with a pair of back-to-back three-pointers from Orlando Johnson to take a 43-27 lead with 16:14 to play in the game. Pacific then outscored the Gauchos 9-2 to cut it to 45-36 at the 14:23 mark with senior Demtrece Young (Oklahoma City, Okla.) scoring five points in the run. UCSB responded with an 11-4 run to take the lead back up to 16 (56-40) with 10:27 to play and the Gaucho lead would not fall below 13 until Huddleston hit three treys in the final minute to cut the final margin to 12.

Huddleston led the Tigers with 21 points, including five three-pointers. Young scored 15 points and fellow senior Terrell Smith (Federal Way, Wash.) adding 12 points. Johnson had 32 points for UCSB, including 22 in the second half.

UCSB shot 57.1 percent from the field for the game, while the Tigers hit just 37.7 percent of their attempts. The Gauchos hit 11 of 18 three-point attempts (61.1%), while the Tigers were just six of 20 (30.0%) including a three for 17 start from beyond the arc. It is the third straight year that the Tigers have been eliminated from the Big West Tournament by a team they had defeated twice in the regular season.