Fresno Pacific Reaches Some Great Heights to Defeat Chapman

On the roster, it wasn’t blatant. But on the floor, Fresno Pacific’s height advantage over Chapman was obvious and the Sunbirds used it to beat Chapman, 89-81, Monday night.

Paul Patla, a 6-foot-8 forward and Greg Zuffelato, a 6-6 forward, did most of the damage to the Panthers, especially in the second half.

Patla finished with 23 points, 13 in the second half.

Zuffelato, who missed much of the first half because of foul trouble, came back to score 22 points in 17 minutes in the second half.

The two combined for 32 of the first 42 points Fresno Pacific (5-8) scored in the second half.

“We kept pounding it inside and that was the difference,” Fresno Pacific Coach John Moore said.

Chapman, which starts no player taller than 6-4, couldn’t control the key.

Richie Bethune, who at 6-7 is Chapman’s tallest player, was shuttled in to try to stop the flow of easy baskets, but fouled out with 12:51 left.

“They kicked our butts inside,” Chapman Coach Mike Bokosky said. “We knew we had to stop their inside stuff and we couldn’t.”

Early on, Chapman (3-9) played zone defense in an effort to help inside, but Fresno Pacific turned to guard Jason Laney to loosen the Chapman defense.

Laney made four three-pointers in the first half and finished with 23 points.

Despite the disadvantage, Chapman did play well for a while. The Panthers trailed, 32-19, with 5 minutes 20 seconds left in the first half but outscored the Sunbirds, 12-6, the rest of the way to cut the lead to 38-31 at the end of the half.

Early in the second half, Chapman finally got its running game going and thanks to some key three-pointers, the Panthers took the lead.

Glen Greene (11 points) and Vern Broadnax (11 points) hit back-to-back threes as Chapman opened a 45-42 lead four minutes into the half. Greene hit another three with 15:10 left and Chapman led, 51-46.

“We picked up the man-to-man and the tempo,” Bokosky said. “We had a chance to stay in the game but just couldn’t take advantage of it.”

Broadnax made two free throws with 13:48 left to give Chapman a 53-48 lead, but Fresno Pacific then started to recover.

The Sunbirds turned back inside and took the lead for good on a rebound and basket by Zuffelato with about 10 minutes left.

“We just tired to stay with the good things we were doing early,” Moore said. “We increased our pressure on defense and got it back inside on offense.”

Mike Vaughn had 21 points and Jeff Gardner and Rod Summers each had 14 for Chapman.