Stockton, Calif. - Kicking off a big stretch of WCC games at home at the Spanos Center, the Tigers came up with a gutty 70-61 victory over Portland on Thursday night in front of 2500 faithful. Pacific's (6-12) win was the second-straight for the Tigers who improved to 4-4 in conference play while the Pilots (10-11) suffered the road loss to fall to 3-5 in the WCC.
After a sloppy opening four minutes that saw just 10 combined points, the Tigers would take their first lead with 14:29 in the opening half on a pair of free throws from Sami Eleraky after the big center was fouled going up and under.