SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Pacific men's basketball team dropped an 82-71 non-conference decision Saturday afternoon, falling to UC Santa Barbara at the Thunderdome.
 
"We failed to execute on defense tonight," Head Coach Leonard Perry said after the game. "When you're on the road, you need to get down and defend."
 
Four players scored in double figures for the Tigers (3-6), with Luke Avdalovic and Donovan Williams pacing the team with 11 points apiece. Sam Freeman added a season-high 10 points, while Keylan Boone recorded 10 points off the bench. Nearly registering a double-double, Freeman led the team in rebounds with eight while Boone added six and one steal.
 
In a tightly contested first half, the Tigers and Gauchos (5-2) traded leads throughout the first 15 minutes of play. With the score tied at 25 at the 5:20 mark of the first half, the Gauchos began to pull away, scoring 10 unanswered points to take a commanding 35-25 lead. The Tigers cut the deficit to six with six seconds left on the clock before the Gauchos hit a buzzer-beating jumper to go up eight, 37-29, at the halftime break.
 
The Gauchos controlled the pace of play throughout the second half, shooting 60.7 percent (17-for-28) from the field and 44.4 percent (four-for-nine) from behind the three-point line.
 
Trailing by 12, 53-41, at the 14:30 mark of the second half, the Tigers began to push towards their first lead since early in the first half. Going on a 9-0 run, the Tigers cut the lead to three with 12:44 left in the contest. The Gauchos, however, never relinquished the lead and outscored the Tigers, 29-21, the rest of the way.
 
Pacific returns to action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, as the Tigers host Northern Arizona at the Alex G. Spanos Center.