RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- For Pacific, good enough was perfect.
The Tigers' defense helped overcome some poor shooting and No. 17 Pacific beat California Riverside 64-48 Saturday night to complete a perfect season in the Big West Conference.
"We seem to play just good enough to win," Pacific coach Bob Thomason said. "Maybe our guys don't want to embarrass people, but we have a tendency to play casual sometimes. Maybe they don't want to show everything they have until the NCAA (tournament)."
Pacific shot just 41.8 percent and was actually outscored in the second half, but still easily tied a school record by winning its 21st straight game. Guillaume Yango had 12 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Tigers (25-2, 18-0), while Mike Webb added 10 points.
Pacific held the Highlanders to just 14 first-half points, and led by 18 at the break, capped by a Matt Kemper three-pointer.
UC Riverside (9-19, 4-14) cut the deficit to 10 points on two occasions with less than six minutes remaining, but Pacific used a tough pressure defense to pull away. But UC Riverside did outscore the Tigers 34-32 in the second half.
"We were very pleased with the second half," UC Riverside coach John Masi said. "But generally it was just a matter of too little offense.
"They've done that to a lot of people. When you play a team like this, basically everything has to be perfect and we weren't tonight."
Steve Williams had 16 points for the Highlanders, scoring 10 of the team's 14 first-half points. Larry Cunningham added 15 points and three assists.
"Overall we played really good defense, but it's pretty hard to hold a team to 14 points in back-to-back halves," Webb said. "We knew they weren't going to the (conference) tournament, so this was their season. That's the type of pressure we face every night. We just have to focus on what we have to do and not worry about the team we face."
The Tigers earned their second consecutive league title after sharing the honor with Utah State last season with a 17-1 mark. Pacific will be the top seed in the Big West Tournament, which starts next Wednesday.
The Tigers earned first and second-round byes as league champions and will play in the semifinals on Friday.
Pacific beat Utah State in the Big West championship game last season to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"We want to win the conference tournament, but whatever happens, I think we're in (the NCAA Tournament)," Thomason said. "We had a lot of fun going down there last year and winning, and Utah State thought they probably should've gotten in and didn't. We don't want to leave that up to anybody else's decision."
The Tigers realize they are the marked team.
"It's something I have to talk to my teammates about, but I don't want to go down there and get beat by the first team we face," Webb said. "That's our motivation to work hard this week and go in prepared."
UC Riverside lost its final four games of the season, and seven of its last eight.
The Tigers became the highest-ranked team to compete at the UC Riverside campus since the Highlanders made the move to Division I in 2000. Pacific remained perfect against the Highlanders in eight meetings.
