Feb. 18 NWC Men’s Basketball Wrap (stories provided by host SID)

At Pacific 69, Willamette 64 (ot)

Forest Grove, Ore. -- Freshman forward Joe Van Domelen scored eight of his team-high 16 points in the overtime period as Pacific upset second place Willamette, 69-64, in Northwest Conference men's basketball action at the Pacific Athletic Center.

With the win, the Boxers (10-14, 7-8 NWC) have a chance to finish with an even conference record if they can beat Linfield Friday night.  The win also stuck a dagger in the NWC championship hopes of the Bearcats (16-6, 10-4 NWC).  With Whitworth's win over Whitman Tuesday, the Pirates need only to win Friday to claim the conference crown outright.

Van Domelen coupled his 16 points with eight rebounds, including six offensive, and a big second half block.  Erin Gram added 11 points and four assists and Rahim Tufts hit for 10.  Pacific outshot the Bearcats 44 percent to 35 percent after the Bearcats shot 61 percent in the first half.  The Boxers also outrebounded the 'Cats 42-30.

Ryan Hepp led the Bearcats with 18 points.  Marques Johnson finished with 14, and scored the 1000th point of his Willamette career of a free throw at the 14:05 mark of the second half.

After Johnson missed two lay-ins to start the extra period, Van Domelen took charge by scoring the first four points of the overtime for a 61-57 lead.  Miles Sandgathe's three brought it back to within one, but subsequent jumpers by Gram and Van Domelen extended the lead to five, 65-60, with 2:09 left.  Ryan Hepp brought the game back to one with another jumper and a free throw with 47 seconds left.  Tufts fought into the lane on the next possession, hitting a lay-in with 13 seconds left for the 67-64 lead. Hepp's three-pointer to tie did not fall, and two late free throws by Van Domelen put the game away.

Neither the Boxers nor Bearcats could miss early on, trading the lead four times and tying eight times in the first 12 minutes.  Willamette did not take the first sizeable lead of the game until the final three minutes, and went up 33-28 at halftime on B.J. Dobrkovsky's buzzer-beating three-pointer.

The Bearcats' took their biggest lead of seven early in the second half when two free throws by Johnson made it 35-28.  The Boxers, however, quickly closed the game and tied the game on Dan Lumpkin's jumper with 14:25 left.  Willamette took the seven-point advantage back on a 9-2 run that ended at the 9:50 mark on Sandgathe's free throw.  The Bearcats led until Kelsey hit a free throw with 3.1 seconds left to tie the game at 57.

Pacific will finish their season Friday night as they host arch-rival Linfield.  Willamette will play at George Fox Friday, and finish the regular season at home Saturday against Puget Sound.

Whitworth 82, at Whitman 58

Walla Walla, Wash. - The Whitman men's basketball team fell to Northwest Conference rival Whitworth Tuesday night, 82-58, in Sherwood Center. The Missionaries dropped to 7-17 overall, 4-11 in conference. Whitworth, ranked 15th nationally, improved its conference best record to 21-3, 12-3.

The Pirates came off the opening tip firing, hitting their first four shots to take a 10-0 lead 2:48 into the game. The Missionaries had no answer for the opening run, and fell behind 21-4 with 11:20 to play in the first half. The Pirates opened up a 24 point lead with just seconds left in the half, but a late three by Scott Erickson cut it to 21.

The Missionaries hit 10 of 30 shots in the first half, but Whitworth nailed 18 of 29 shots in taking a 44-23 lead into the break.

The Missionaries never got within 18 points in the second half as Whitworth continued to shoot well from the floor, hitting 51.7 percent of its shots in the second half. Whitman hit three of seven three point attempts in the half, as did Whitworth. In the end, it was the Pirates shooting 56.9 percent from the floor and control of the boards that downed the Missionaries, 82-58. Whitworth grabbed 39 caroms to the Missionaries 26.

Bryan Depew, the conference’s leading scorer, had 26 points, seven rebounds in 34 minutes of play. He hit 12 of 16 shots. Chase Williams added 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists on nine of 17 shooting from the floor.

Whitman's lone scorer in double figures was Casey Nelson, who came off the bench for 12 points. Nelson hit five of eight shots in 19 minutes of play. Freshman Greg Ricker had seven points, four assists and three rebounds. Erickson and Greg Caldwell each had eight points.

Whitworth hosts Lewis & Clark on Friday night in a showdown for the NWC title.  Whitman hosts the Pioneers on Saturday night.

Linfield 90, at George Fox 82

Newberg, Ore. -- After blowing all of a 21-point second half lead, the Linfield College Wildcats had enough left for a late offensive outburst and escaped with a 90-82 victory over the upset-minded George Fox University Bruins in a Northwest Conference men’s basketball game Tuesday night at the Wheeler Sports Center.

A 14-0 run sent the visiting Wildcats soaring to a 19-3 lead just 6 minutes into the game, and they stretched that lead to 27-7 on a pair of free throws by Matt Larson, the nation’s top free throw shooter, with 12 minutes left.  The Wildcats’ scoring slowed down after that frantic early pace, but Linfield was still comfortably ahead at the half, 47-30.

Jeff Dunn’s jumper and a steal and layup by O.J. Gulley 10 seconds into the second half gave Linfield a 51-30 lead, but the Bruins rallied to make a game of it.  Sparked by Aaron Schmick, who scored all of his game-high 19 points in the second stanza, the Bruins outscored the Wildcats 42-21 over the next 15 minutes and tied it at 72-72 on a driving layup by Trevor Person with 4:15 to play.

Travis Jones broke the tie at 4:04 with a free throw, but missed the second.  Nick Fusare, however, reached over everyone to collar the rebound and stick it back in the hole for a 75-72 Linfield edge.  Gulley scored 7 of the Wildcats’ final 15 points as Linfield gradually pulled away.  It was the first time in the last 10 meetings of the Yamhill County rivals that at least one of the teams did not score 100 or more points.

Jones led Linfield with 18 points, followed by Gulley with 16, Fusare with 13, and Larson with 11.  Fusare made it a double-double with 11 rebounds, while Gulley had 6 assists.

In addition to Schmick’s career-high 19, Mark Gayman scored 15 and Person had 14.  Gayman and Brett Yeager had 9 rebounds apiece as the Bruins controlled the backboards against the bigger Wildcats 49-44.  Person had 8 assists.              

George Fox is now 7-17 overall and 1-14 in the conference, while Linfield, still hoping to make it to the NWC Tournament, stayed alive by improving to 15-8 overall and 8-6 in league play.

George Fox closes its season Friday (Feb. 21), hosting Willamette University, while Linfield visits Pacific University Friday, both games at 8:00 p.m., following women’s games at 6:00 p.m.