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Providence College Athletics
Friday, March 19
Kansas City, Mo.
7:25 PM
Providence College
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Pacific (NCAA Tournament)
Friars Fall To Pacific In NCAA Tournament
3/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 19, 2004
By STEVE BRISENDINE
AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The last time Pacific opened the NCAA tournament with a victory, coach Bob Thomason was still two years away from joining the Tigers - as a player.
Before Friday night, Pacific had not won a first-round game in the NCAAs since 1967.
"We've won 16 games in a row," said forward Guillaume Yango, who scored 18 points for the Tigers (25-7). "The 12 vs. 5 seed factor didn't cross our minds."
Miah Davis led Pacific, the Big West tournament champion, with 19 points in the Tigers' first NCAA tournament game since 1997.
Thomason was a member of the Pacific team that beat Brigham Young in the 1971 tournament, but that was in a consolation game after a first-round loss. The Tigers also lost in the first round in 1979.
Pacific will meet the winner of Friday's late game between Kansas and Illinois-Chicago in the second round Sunday.
Ryan Gomes had 25 points and 13 rebounds for Providence (20-9), which ended its season on a four-game losing streak. The Friars were making their first NCAA appearance since a first-round loss in 2001 and have not advanced to the second round since making the regional finals in 1997.
"We thought the past was behind us," Providence guard Donnie McGrath said. "We came in positive and thought we could knock them off. Obviously, we couldn't get it done."
McGrath, the Friars' top outside shooter, scored three points and was 1-for-5 from 3-point range.
Pacific led 37-33 at the break but had six turnovers and only eight points in almost nine minutes to start the second half.
"I'm not going to say the turnovers didn't bother me," Thomason said. "A one-turnover game will bother me - my guys will tell you that. But at times you just have to let it go."
Yango scored six points in an 8-2 run that put the Tigers up 54-46 with just over seven minutes left, but the Friars got within 58-54 when Chris Anrin hit two free throws with 2:40 left.
After Davis' 3-pointer with 1:30 left, David Doubley hit a layup with 40 seconds left for a 63-54 lead.
Gomes scored two quick baskets, the last with 27.9 seconds to go, to get Providence within 63-58. The Tigers went 1-for-4 from the line in the closing seconds, but Providence could not convert on its chances and Davis punctuated the win with a layup with two seconds to go.
 | "We came in positive and thought we could knock them off. Obviously, we couldn't get it done." - Donnie McGrath |
Tom Cockle hit three 3-pointers, scored 11 points and had six assists for Pacific.
Providence had 15 turnovers - which the Tigers converted into 23 points - to 12 assists and shot 38 percent (23-for-61) from the floor. Both teams hit six 3s - but the Friars took 26 shots from outside the arc, a dozen more than Pacific.
"We probably took too many 3-pointers, but I'll have to look at the tape to tell for sure," Friars coach Tim Welsh said. "I think a lot of them were open looks, and that's our game - if we get an open look at a 3, we'll take it."
Pacific went 4-for-6 from 3-point range against the zone in the first eight minutes, then switched to attacking inside and in transition when Providence went man-to-man. The Tigers led 33-24 on Tyler Newton's basket with 4:13 left in the first half.
Three late 3s pulled the Friars to 35-33 before Davis hit a layup in the closing seconds.
Providence center Marcus Douthit drew a technical with just over seven minutes left in the first half, for protesting a charging call. The technical counted as his third personal, and he did not return until the start of the second half.
Douthit, who had four points and four rebounds before the technical, didn't score after that and finished with seven rebounds.
"At the start of the game, my mind frame was to play as physical as possible," Douthit said. "But every time I tried to play physical, the ref told me, 'Keep your hands off him.'
"I'm not used to playing like that," he said. "I'm from the Big East, and everything goes in the Big East. I tried to adjust to how the ref was calling the game, but it was tough for me."
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