|
Written by Arash Scott Behnam - Sports Editor
|
|
Thursday, 15 February 2007 |
The Pacific Tigers had a chance to play catch-up in the Big West standings with two home games against Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside. Despite career highs in scoring from seniors Michael White and Reggie Vezia, the Tigers fell short and lost to Fullerton 82-77.
What hurt the Tigers most was their free throw shooting and their defensive rebounding. The team shot just over 58% and sophomore Anthony Brown could not find his stroke from the foul line and finished 7-16.
Cal State Fullerton relied on its three point shooting to keep them ahead in the game, but when they did miss, they kept control of the offensive rebounding and scored 12 points in the second half off their own rebounds.
Even though point guard Solomon HorseChief did not have a great shooting game, he did contribute 7 assists, most to Mike White who did a great job of sealing his man in the post for open lay-ups. Fullerton also beat Pacific thanks to contributions from their bench. Pacific was outscored 28-7 in bench points and the 7 points all came from sophomore Steffan Johnson.
After a disappointing loss to Fullerton, the Tigers looked to bounce back against UC Riverside, a team who upset Fullerton a week earlier. In front of a crowd of almost 4,000 people, Pacific played a great game overall and found contribution from some unlikely players.
 Senior Ben Pemberton scored a career-high 13 points off the bench for Pacific.
Against Fullerton, Pacific’s bench was nowhere to be found, but against UC Riverside the bench scored 37 points. The players off the bench changed the tempo of the game once they came in. Even though he had not played in the last two games, senior Ben Pemberton came in and proved he deserves more playing time, scoring 13 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.
The other players that scored off the bench were Casey Neimeyer, Steffan Johnson, and Wolfgang Raffety. Raffety, who also has seen limited playing time, filled in for foul-plagued Mike White and controlled the post. Pemberton excited the crowd with a baseline dunk and Neimeyer showed his poise and athleticism once he was in. Reggie Vezia had another good scoring game and C.J. Morgan, who is known for his offense, came in and played solid defense on Riverside’s top scorers.
Next for the Tigers is a trip to Montana to face a team they could have played in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year. Montana is currently 8-4 in their league and is in second place. They are led by Andrew Straight who is averaging 16 points and 6 rebounds per game. While this game does nothing for Pacific’s league standings, it would be nice for them to get a win before they play at home against UC Davis.
Views: 301
|
Sports 
