Feb. 27 NWC Basketball Playoff Games (Stories provided by host SID)

Women – At Pacific Lutheran 79, Puget Sound 75 (ot) - (scroll down for men's report)

Tacoma, Wash. -- Sara Wilcox had a career night, and the Pacific Lutheran women’s basketball season will continue for at least one more game as a result. 

Wilcox, a sophomore post from Centralia, scored a career-high 19 points to lead the host Lutes past the visiting Puget Sound Loggers, 79-75 in overtime, in a Northwest Conference tournament playoff game on Thursday night at Olson Auditorium. Pacific Lutheran (19-7) will advance to the conference tournament championship game at 6 p.m. on Saturday against Whitworth College (19-6) in Spokane.  The winner of the championship game will receive the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament scheduled to begin on March 5 at campus sites around the country.  For Puget Sound (19-7), the season comes to an end. 

Wilcox, whose previous PLU single-game high was 11 points against Warner Pacific back on Dec. 6, made all nine of her field goal attempts and converted 1-of-2 free throw opportunities, the charity toss providing the Lutes with insurance with 3.2 seconds left in the game.

Wilcox played an especially big role for the Lutes with all-conference post Courtney Johnson limited by foul trouble. In fact, Johnson scored only four points in 15 minutes, though the 6-3 junior finished with five blocked shots.

Pacific Lutheran led by as much as seven points in the first half before the Loggers went on a 4-0 run at the end of the period to cut PLU’s halftime lead to 35-32. The Lutes slowly built on that advantage in the second half. Wilcox hit a jumper from the side to give the Lutes a 53-44 lead at the 17:10 mark, and PLU eventually built a 13-point margin, 62-49, on Johnson’s basket with 7:04 remaining to play. Puget Sound was hardly finished, however, running off nine unanswered points, capped by a three-point field goal by Allison McCurdy with 3:39 on the clock. During the run, the Loggers forced the Lutes into three hurried shots and a pair of turnovers. Still, the Lutes stayed in front, and when Kelly Turner hit a jumper with 26 seconds left, they led by six points, 68-62. Jen McLuen hit a three-pointer at the other end to cut the lead to three points with 12 seconds left, and the Loggers fouled Mallory Mann with seven seconds remaining, sending PLU’s freshman point guard to the foul line for a one-and-one. Mann’s shot hit long off the rim, and the Loggers pushed the ball up the floor before calling a timeout with 3.2 seconds on the clock. With one second left, all-conference forward Linsday May banked in a three-pointer from the top of the key to send the game into overtime.

The Loggers scored first in the extra period on McCurdy’s second three-pointer of the game, but PLU’s Turner, a freshman who ranks third in NCAA Division III three-point field goal accuracy, buried a trey from the left corner to knot the game at 71. Turner, a 46 percent shooter, hit 3-of-5 from long range on the way to 11 points. Puget Sound got the lead back on a layup by all-conference forward Lucy Wilson, but Aundi Kustura responded with a jumper, tying the game again at 73-73. The Lutes took the lead for good with 2:20 remaining when Mann stole a pass and drove the length of the floor for a layup with 2:13 left. Mann hit a free throw with 30 seconds left to put the Lutes ahead, 78-75. The Loggers missed three shots, two of them from three-point range, before Wilcox grabbed her sixth rebound of the game with 3.2 seconds remaining in overtime. She made the first of the two free throws, and the Lutes had the exciting victory in front of an estimated crowd of 1,000.

The Lutes’ win came six days after a 60-53 loss to the host Loggers. In that game, Puget Sound limited the Lutes to 41 percent shooting. This game was much different, however, as the Lutes hit 34-of-54 shots, or 63 percent. In addition to Wilcox hitting all nine of her shots, Mann was 7-of-9 from the field on the way to 15 points. Hilary Berg and Kustura joined Turner with 11 points apiece.

Puget Sound shot 37 percent for the game, making 24-of-65 shots. May scored 20 points to lead the Loggers, who also had five players in double figures. McCurdy had 12 points, followed by Wilson with 11 and Kilty Keaton and McLuen with 10 apiece.

The 79 points scored by the Lutes was their single-game high this season, but the 75 points scored by the Loggers was also the most points scored against a PLU team since the first game of the 1999-2000 campaign, a 78-56 loss at Simon Fraser.

Men – at Willamette 79, Lewis & Clark 74 (2ot)

Salem, Ore. -- Willamette survived three players fouling out and some key missed free throws by Lewis & Clark to pull out a 79-74 double-overtime victory over the Pioneers in a Northwest Conference playoff game in Cone Field House.

The victory propelled the Bearcats into the NWC tournament championship game on Saturday (8 p.m.) at regular-season champion Whitworth (22-3). Willamette improved to 19-6 on the season while L&C ended the campaign at 16-10.

The Bearcats got 25 points and six assists from senior point guard Ryan Hepp, who was the only played to play all 50 minutes. Marques Johnson added 14 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out with 1:12 to play in the second overtime.

Johnson’s fifth foul put L&C’s Colin Oriard to the line, where he converted both free throws to bring the Pios to within a point at 75-74. Hepp stretched the lead to 77-74 with two free throws of his own with 44 seconds remaining.

On Lewis & Clark’s next possession, WU’s B.J. Dobrkovsky drew an offensive foul on the Pioneers’ Kristofer Speier. After the Bearcats inbounded in back court, David Force was fouled with 28 seconds left. He hit both ends of a one-and-one free throw opportunity to provide the final points of the game.

Lewis & Clark received typical dominating performances from Speier and Oriard, who were responsible for fouling out the Bearcats’ Johnson, Miles Sandgathe and Ryan Rahlfs. Speier scored 19 of his game-high 30 points in the second half, hitting 13 of 20 shots for the game. Oriard added 16 points and a game-high 15 boards.

Willamette also got 11 points and seven rebounds from Harold Sublett Jr. He also had four assists and four steals and did not commit a turnover. Rahlfs came off the bench to add 10 points for WU.

Willamette was whistled for 22 fouls, compared to just 14 for the Pioneers, but the visitors couldn’t capitalize on the biggest opportunities. L&C made just 15 of 24 free throws (62.5%), while WU canned 10 of 12 (83.3%) charity tosses.

With 27 seconds left in regulation, Rahlfs drew his fifth foul and sent Speier to the line with the score 59-59. However, Speier missed both attempts. The Bearcats missed three hurried shots to win the game in the closing seconds.

In the first overtime, Speier made the second of two free throws with 0.9 seconds remaining to tie the score at 68-68. Speier took a lob pass over the top of the Willamette defense and was headed for the game-winning lay-in when Sandgathe raked Speier’s arms, drawing his fifth foul.

Also in the first extra period, L&C had a 67-66 lead and the ball with the shot clock turned off. Force deflected a pass about 30 feet from the basket, Hepp stole the ball near mid-court and went the length of the rest of the way to make it 68-67 with 8.3 seconds left.

Willamette shot just 41.0 percent from the field for the game, compared to 46.4 percent for Lewis & Clark. But the Bearcats did a much better job of taking care of the ball. L&C had 16 turnovers and WU had just six.