Tigers Hang On to Beat Titans by 4
Mar. 3, 2005 – Fullerton, Calif.

Box Score

Guillaume Yango scored 23 of his game-high 27 points in the second half Thursday night as No. 17-ranked Pacific held off Cal State Fulleton, 92-88, in a Big West Conference game. The win stretched the Tigers’ winning streak to 20 and raised their record to 24-2 overall and 17-0 in the Big West.

Fullerton got 24 points and 9 rebounds from Ralphy Holmes and 22 points from Yaphett King but fell to 17-9, 11-6 as a 4-game winning streak ended before a crowd of 3,576, largest in Titan Gym since 1993.

Fullerton had a chance at victory in the final seconds.After Justin Burns scored inside to cut the Pacific lead to 90-88, the Tigers turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. But Bobby Brown missed a long 3-pointer and Tyler Newton made two free throws with less than 2 seconds remaining.

There were 10 ties in the game and neither team led by more than 5 points in the second half after a 42-42 first half. Holmes’ 3-point play broke the final tie and gave Fullerton an 82-79 lead with 3:45 left and King followed with a layup to make it 84-79 at 3:11.

But the Tigers got four consecutive free throws from David Doubley and Johnny Gray to start a 9-0 run, going ahead for good on Yango’s inside bucket at 1:23. Pacific hit 22 of 24 free throws -- 11 of 12 by Yango -- and made 8 of 14 3-pointers while shooting 57 percent overall. Fullerton was only 6 of 12 at the line and shot 49 percent, making 12 of 29 treys.

Fullerton’s starting frontline was cited for 14 fouls trying to stop the taller Tigers.
Fullerton jumped out to a 13-2 lead but the Tigers went ahead at 22-20 on a 3-pointer by Mike Webb, who made three in a row to erase a 20-13 Fullerton lead. Pacific’s biggest lead of the game was 6 pionts at both 38-32 and 40-34.

The bigger Tigers outreboiunded the Titans by only a 33-31 margin and committed 16 turnovers to 9 by Fullerton, which wraps up its regular season Saturday night vs. Cal State Northridge. The Tigers try to complete a perfect conference season Saturday at UC Riverside.

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