VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:31:12 02/17/02 Sun
Author: Jon Ralston
Subject: Re: Tigers take on Anteaters
In reply to: Jon Ralston 's message, "Tigers take on Anteaters" on 15:36:00 02/16/02 Sat

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally Published Sunday, February 17, 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tigers upset Big West's best

By Bob Highfill

Record Staff Writer

In a dramatic turnaround, University of the Pacific played a near-flawless basketball game 48 hours after it played one of its worst.

The Tigers fell behind UC Irvine 13-4, then matched the Anteaters' physical, grabbing style and even landed a few shots of their own in an impressive 73-61 victory in front of 3,346 at Spanos Center on Saturday night.

"I felt we were going to play hard," Pacific coach Bob Thomason said. "We were playing hard when we were down 13-4. People probably didn't realize that, but we were."

Pacific (15-9, 7-7 Big West) now is tied with Cal State Northridge for fifth place after the Matadors lost to Long Beach State on Saturday. UC Irvine (18-8, 11-4) fell into second place and is one game behind Utah State (20-4, 12-3), which beat Cal State Riverside on Saturday.

The Tigers snapped out of a dreadful shooting slump that plagued them for three games. Pacific made 50 percent of its field-goal attempts, and four players scored in double figures.

Defensively, the Tigers were aggressive and active, and guards Maurice McLemore and Demetrius Jackson held UC Irvine's Jerry Green, the reigning conference player of the year, to half his scoring average with 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the floor.

"I just tried to keep him as far away from the basket as I could," said Jackson, who scored 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting and gave up five inches to Green. "My job as a smaller player is to stay in front of him. I knew if I kept him out of the key, I could have success."

Pacific's interior defense prevented 7-foot Adam Parada from dominating. Mike Preston, Ross Mills and Tim Johnson took turns and held Parada to nine points, four below his average.

Parada picked up his second foul three minutes into the game and didn't return in the first half. The Tigers made eight of their last 16 shots from the floor in the final 10 minutes and led 31-28 at halftime.

"We were down three at halftime, so not having Adam was a factor," UC Irvine coach Pat Douglass said. "They took it at us all night."

The game was physical throughout. Players pulled on each other's jerseys, blasted each other on screens, dove for loose balls and drove hard to the basket. McLemore, who didn't start for only the second time in conference play, put on a show in the second half when he scored seven points during a 9-0 run that gave the Tigers a 50-39 lead with 13:10 left.

UC Irvine trimmed it to 64-59 with 2:04 remaining. Jackson followed with a driving layup. He was fouled and converted the three-point play.

The Tigers made their final seven free throws and held on for their first victory over the Anteaters in the regular season since the 1998-99 season. Pacific beat UC Irvine in the second round of the 2001 Big West Tournament.

The Tigers will return to the road, where they are 1-6 in conference, and play Cal State Fullerton on Thursday and UC Riverside on Saturday.

"It's an opportunity to see if we can get over our jinx on the road in conference," Thomason said. "Everybody I put in did a good job. That's what a good team does."

* To reach reporter Bob Highfill, phone 546-8299 or e-mail bhighfil@recordnet.com

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.