PARKLAND - The Pacific University Boxers weathered a furious
Pacific Lutheran second half rally and made several big plays
inside the final minute on Saturday night to pull out a 68-66
Northwest Conference men's basketball win over the Lutes at Olson
Auditorium.
Pacific, which was winless in all eight games during the first
half of the NWC season, won for the second straight time to
start the second time around the conference. The Boxers are now 2-8
in the conference and 6-13 overall. Pacific Lutheran, meanwhile,
falls to 6-4 and into a fourth-place tie in the conference
standings with idle George Fox. The Lutes are now 8-9 overall this
season.
PLU took a 16-12 lead on Kyle MacTaggart's jumper with 13:14
left in the first half, but the Boxers gained control by scoring 14
unanswered points. Ross Bartlett, who scored 17 of his game-high 27
points in the opening half, scored five during the run. Pacific
continued to add to the lead and eventually took a 35-22 advantage
into the halftime break. The Lutes, who shot the ball well in a
Friday night victory over second place Linfield, connected on
9-of-33 shots, good for only 27 percent, in the first 20 minutes of
the contest.
The visitors played add-on during the early minutes of the
second half and built an 18-point lead, 46-28, that coming on Adam
McElwee's three-point basket with 15:48 left in the game.
That's when the Lutes really went to work, converting offensive
opportunities and scrapping for loose balls on the other end of the
floor. They cut their deficit to eight points on a couple of
occasions and made it a five-point game, 56-51, on a Tony Polis
jumper with 6:59 left. The Boxers responded with a basket by LeMar
Anglin, but the Lutes came back with an 11-2 run, tying the
game at 60-60 on a three-point basket by Polis and taking the
lead, 62-60, on a layup by MacTaggart with 2:58 to play.
Leading 64-62 with one minute left, the Lutes missed a
three-point shot, and McElwee responded with a long-range dagger
with 48 seconds left to put Pacific back on top, 65-64. The Lutes
missed another three-pointer, a layup and turned the ball over,
while on the other end the Boxers made three of four free throws to
build a 68-64 lead, making MacTaggart's basket at the buzzer
meaningless.
Bartlett was unstoppable all night long, converting 11-of-20
shots and 5-of-5 at the foul line for his 27 points. He also led
all rebounders with 15, including 12 on the defensive boards. The
Boxers cleaned up on the backboards by a 46-28 margin, with Colin
Wester getting nine in a reserve role. Anglin scored 17 points and
McElwee added 16 for the victors.
MacTaggart led Pacific Lutheran with 16 points and James Conti
contributed 11 and five assists. No PLU player had more than four
rebounds. The Lutes finished the game shooting 41 percent
(27-of-66), while the Boxers hit 48 percent from the field
(27-of-56).
PLU returns to conference action at 8 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts
the Puget Sound Loggers in Olson Auditorium.
- PLU -
