Pacific Advances In Big West Tournament With 71-68 Win Over UC Santa Barbara
Pacific led by 19 points, then had to come from behind to defeat UC Santa Barbara 71-68 in the first round of the Big West Tournament at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 14. With the win, Pacific improved to 20-12 on the season. UC Santa Barbara dropped to 11-20 overall. The Tigers picked up their 20
th win for the 14
th time in school history.
"We got the bounces right at the end and we'll take advantage of it, rest and be ready to go tomorrow," said Tiger head coach Bob Thomason.
The Tigers opened up a 5-0 lead, after a jumper and a three-pointer from seniors Travis Fulton and Colin Beatty. Fulton scored five more points to give Pacific a 10-3 lead with 14:47 to play in the half. The Gauchos cut the lead to 12-8, then Beatty hit a pair of three-pointers in a 12-0 run to make it a 24-8 Tiger lead with 7:08 to play in the half. A pair of free throws from Michael Bryson made it 27-13, but the Tigers pushed it to a game-high 19 point lead (38-19) after another three-pointer from Beatty with 3:27 to go in the half. Pacific ended the half with a 40-25 lead after shooting 57.7% (15-26) in the first 20 minutes.
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Mustangs Advance to Big West Tournament Semifinals with 64-41 Triumph
Senior guard Dylan Royer scored a game-high 17 points as the third-seeded Cal Poly men's basketball program strolled into the semifinal round of the 2013 Big West Conference Tournament with a 64-41 triumph against No. 6 UC Davis inside the Honda Center on Thursday afternoon.
Senior guard Drake U'u added 10 points for Cal Poly (18-12), which led by one at the break before outscoring UC Davis 44-22 during the second half. Cal Poly, which limited UC Davis (14-17) to the lowest point output by a Mustang opponent this season, also held the Aggies to a 36.4 (16-for-44) percent field goal mark.
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49ers Advance to Big West Semis After Defeating Titans 75-66
The Long Beach State men's basketball team (19-12) is one step closer to defending its 2012 Big West Conference Tournament crown after defeating Cal State Fullerton (14-18) 75-66 in a quarterfinal game on Wednesday evening at the Honda Center.
Long Beach advances to the semifinal game and will face the winner of the Hawai'i-UC Irvine contest. The game will be televised live on ESPNU at 6:30 pm.
"Whenever you start a tournament, it's important to get that first game under your belt and survive, and we did that tonight," said Head Coach Dan Monson. "We had a few chances to blow the game wide open and couldn't do it. It was a grind for our guys tonight the entire game. You have to give credit to Fullerton because they were down their top two scorers and gave us a lot of problems.
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Defensive Intensity Lifts UC Irvine over Hawai'i, 71-60, at Big West Tournament
An intense defense from the opening tip and six players in double-figure scoring lifted UC Irvine over Hawai'i, 71-60, in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal at the Honda Center Thursday night.
With the victory, the fourth-seeded 'Eaters meet top-seeded Long Beach State Friday night at 6:30 in one semifinal, with Pacific facing Cal Poly in the other semifinal later in the evening.
UCI has won seven of its last eight games and nine of the past 12.
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