Pacific Continues to Dominate UC Irvine
Pacific spoiled UC Irvine’s hopes of clinching a Big West Conference tournament berth Saturday night, defeating the Anteaters, 79-66, at the Irvine Bren Center.
Dell Demps scored 23 points and Tony Amundsen added 17 as the Tigers (11-14, 7-9) beat the Anteaters for the sixth consecutive time.
An Irvine victory would have sealed a playoff berth in the eight-team conference tournament. The Anteaters hold a 1 1/2-game lead over San Jose State, a 82-75 loser to Cal State Fullerton Saturday night.
Irvine (6-20, 3-14) has one game remaining--at New Mexico State next Saturday--and San Jose State plays host to Cal State Long Beach and UC Santa Barbara. Any combination of an Irvine victory and a San Jose loss will put the Anteaters in the tournament.
Irvine trailed, 40-34, at halftime and 56-47 with 10:20 to play. But Pacific went on a 9-0 run in the next three minutes, and Irvine was never closer than 12 the rest of the game.
Jeff Von Lutzow scored 24 points and pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds to lead Irvine.
Gerald McDonald added 12 points, and Keith Stewart and Khari Johnson added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
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