To quote Road Warrior Hawk (or was it Animal?)..."Whaaatttt aaaaa rrruuuusssshhhh!"...as the Pacific Tigers, who haven't played a game at the Spanos Center in a month, continued their Road Warrior act with a 64-56 win over the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the Semi-Finals of the CIT Post-Season Tournament.
The Tigers were, once again, led by Sam Willard recording a double-double (which reminds me, in-n-out right now anybody?) with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Demetrece Young was the only other Tiger in double digits with 12 points including 3-7 from behind the arc.
So how did the Tigers pull out their third straight road win in the CIT?...A hot start, including jumping out to leads of 11-2, 21-7 and 28-13 certainly helped. But, much like against Northern Colorado...the defense did it. Pacific held Appalachian State to 18 points below their season average of 74 points per game and forced the Mountaineers to shoot a dismal 33.3% from the field as opposed to the 46.7% that they averaged during in-season. Pacific's big men did what the Spot figured they needed to do, out-rebounding the Mountaineers by 15 boards. Joe Ford and Michael Nunally were beasts on the boards for the Tigers with 13 and 9 rebounds respectively.
Up next for the Tigers, a spot in the CIT Championship Game vs. the Missouri State Bears. Pacific will once again continue its Road Warrior act as the game will be held at the Home of the Bears (it must be nice...Carrie Underwood is performing there on June 15th!) in Springfield, Missouri. And no Spot fans, its not this Springfield...or this one either.
In the meantime....here is the official recap of Pacific's Semi-Final win from the Pacific Athletic Department, along with the Appalachian State perspective on things from the Watauga Democrat.
No comments:
Post a Comment