Yango Gives Pacific an Edge

With help from center Guillaume Yango, Pacific got to stay atop the Big West Conference standings.

Yango made a 15-foot jumper with 3.9 seconds left to give Pacific a 67-65 victory over UC Irvine on Saturday night in front of 1,853 at the Bren Center. The win moved the defending Big West tournament champion to 10-2 overall and 5-0 in conference.

“Everybody’s gunning for us,” Pacific guard David Doubley said. “We’re going to receive everybody’s best effort so we’ve got to come out, play hard and fight for every win we get.”

Led by point guard Aaron Fitzgerald, Irvine (6-5, 1-3) took the lead twice in the final 94 seconds. Fitzgerald’s driving layup gave the Anteaters a 62-61 lead and, after a Yango free throw, his 12-footer gave them a two-point lead.

Pacific’s Christian Maraker, who had 14 points, tied the score with 25.7 seconds left on a baseline move for a layup past Irvine center Greg Ethington. Maraker added a free throw, and a missed free throw by Irvine’s Darren Fells left the score tied, 65-65.

That set the stage for Yango, whose shot gave Pacific its 20th consecutive victory against Big West opponents.

“They made a good play and kicked the ball back to Yango to win the ball game,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “I was proud of my guys. That’s probably the best we’ve played for 40 minutes in terms of staying within our offense.”

Fitzgerald led Irvine with 19 points. Ross Schraeder had 13 points, but the sharp-shooting guard took only one shot in the second half.

Said forward Nic Campbell, “It’s a loss but I think we learned a lot from it.”

Eric Stephens

*

Cal State Northridge 69, Long Beach State 53 -- Davin White scored a career-high 28 points and led a second-half surge by the Matadors (6-7, 4-1) in a Big West win at the Pyramid.

White, a senior reserve guard, made five of seven three-point baskets, including two in the last three minutes of the first half and another early in the second for the Matadors, who turned a two-point deficit late in the first half into a 51-38 lead midway through the second.

White scored 17 points in the second half.

Ian Boylan became Northridge’s all-time leader in three-point baskets when he made his 150th with 17:34 left. He passed Brian Heinle, who set the record from 1997 to 2001. Boylan finished with 19 points, 15 in the second half and seven during the crucial early second-half run.

“It was critical for us to come out in the second half and establish ourselves early,” said Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell, whose team led, 28-26, at halftime. “I feel like [Long Beach] is a team that’s on the edge and I didn’t want to be the team that they broke out on.”

Long Beach (2-11, 0-4), which has been plagued by turnovers all season, exceeded its average of 18.6 a game with 22 against Northridge. Foul trouble also kept Long Beach starters Shawn Hawkins and Chris Jenkins on the bench for much of the first half.

Jibril Hodges had 14 points and Onye Ibekwe 11 points and 10 rebounds for Long Beach.

-- Peter Yoon

Cal State Fullerton 89, UC Davis 61 -- Ralphy Holmes scored 25 points to lead five Titan players in double figures at home.

Yaphett King scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half for the Titans (7-4), who managed a 35-28 halftime lead despite going scoreless in a 4:28 stretch, in part because UC Davis (5-8) managed only six points in the last 10 minutes of the half.

Fowzi Abdelsamad scored 16 points for the Aggies, making him the 12th UC Davis player to score 1,000 points in his career.

Thomas Juillerat had 15 for UC Davis, which is playing its second season as a provisional Division I team.

Idaho 61, UC Santa Barbara 50 -- Anton Lyons scored 22 points at Moscow, Idaho, to lead the Vandals (5-9, 3-0) in a Big West game. Dandrick Jones had 16 points and 10 rebounds Idaho, and Lionel Davis had 10 rebounds to go with six points.

UC Santa Barbara (4-8, 2-3), which was outrebounded 42-29, was led by Oliver Chrismen’s 12 points and Derek Rasp’s 11.