STOCKTON, Calif. – SIUE went down big in the first half and couldn't recover, falling to Pacific 78-50 Tuesday night.
"I explained to them that I was no less proud to be coaching this team than I was prior to the game," SIUE Head Coach Brian Barone said. "It is harder to say that right now because when you lose the way we did it is frustrating."
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Pacific raced out to a 20-3 lead before a media timeout at 11:09 and the Tigers never looked back. Pacific led 49-17 at halftime.
The Cougars shot just 28 percent (7-25) from the field in the first 20 minute and went 0-11 from three-point range. Pacific was 19-30 (63.3 percent) in the half and 5-10 from long distance.
"When we don't get stops and then scores like we typically do in transition based on our defense; and then we're trying to rely on getting big of chunks at a time, we go away from the style of play we have had success with," Barone added. "We stopped trusting what we have done."
The Cougars fared much better in the second half, connecting on 13-28 (46.4 percent) of their attempts from the field and outscored Pacific 33-29, but they had fallen behind by too much.
Tyresse Williford led SIUE with 11 points and four rebounds. He added four assists and a career-high five steals. Zeke Moore added nine points for SIUE.
Pacific's Broc Finstuen scored 12 points to lead all scorers. Jahbril Price-Noel scored 10.
"We're going to go back to work and I am going to rely on the history that we have on this team which is every day they have shown up after we have had a deflating situation prior," Barone said. "We're going to see how they respond tomorrow. It's going to be, put your head down, go back to work, and let's keep on working on things that we believe in."
SIUE continues its California road trip with a Friday game at UC Riverside.
"Moving forward we now have this experience and the next time things aren't going as well we can rely on this game and reflect upon how we reacted at Pacific," Barone said.