Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Pacific
Men's Basketball Downs Pacific 66-51
12/10/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 11, 2003
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) - Junior guard Marcus West scored each of his game-high 16 points in the second half Wednesday night as Fresno State pulled away for a 66-51 victory over Pacific at Spanos Center.
After Fresno State (2-3) began the second half with an 8-0 run, West made three consecutive 3-pointers to give the Bulldogs a 50-35 lead. West had his fourth 3-pointer in a late 10-2 run that gave Fresno State its biggest lead at 64-46 in the final minutes.
"Tonight, we played Bulldog basketball," head coach Ray Lopes said. "We played hard, rebounded well and were good defensively. And we finally got a few breaks to go our way. This is a very good win for us right now. To come in here and beat Pacific like this is very satisfying."
The Bulldogs, who led 29-27 at halftime, placed all five starters in double figures. Renaldo Major scored 15 points, Francis Koffi and Mustafa Al-Sayyad each scored 12 and Shantay Legans had 11. Guillaume Yango led Pacific (3-3) with 15 points, but he did not score in the second half.
Pacific made just 6 of 25 shots (24 percent) from the field after halftime and made only 5 of 24 3-point attempts (21 percent) on the night. With Yango leading the way, Pacific made five of its first seven shots to grab an early seven-point lead, its biggest of the game.
But Fresno State went to a zone defense and slowly crept back as Pacific began misfiring. The Tigers missed 30 of their final 41 shots. The Bulldogs took their first lead midway through the first half and built a 29-23 advantage with 1:25 remaining before intermission behind the scoring of Major and Koffi, who combined for 22 first-half points.
A dunk and jumper by Yango brought Pacific back within two points at halftime. Yango outscored his teammates 15-12 in the first 20 minutes, but he took just one shot in the second half after making 7 of 9 shots in the opening half.
