Men's Basketball Weekly Notebook
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THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC MEN'S BASKETBALL
WHITWORTH AT PACIFIC
Game No. 10/Home Game No. 4
Fri., Jan. 5, 8 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
Live Stats:
www.goboxers.com/livestats
Live Audio Webcast:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
Live Video Webcast:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
WHITMAN AT PACIFIC
Game No. 11/Home Game No. 5
Sat., Jan. 6, 6 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
Live Stats:
www.goboxers.com/livestats
Live Audio Webcast:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
Live Video Webcast:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
NWC SEASON BEGINS WITH LEAGUE'S TOP TWO TEAMS
The Pacific men's basketball team's nine games of non-conference preparation will be put to the test early in the Northwest Conference season as the Boxers host the league's top two squads to open their NWC schedule. The Boxers host defending NWC champion and No. 11 ranked Whitworth on Friday and then welcome Whitman on Saturday.
BOXER BYTES
• Pacific split their games on their pre-Christmas California road trip. Pacific opened the trip by pulling away from a two-point halftime deficit to complete a season sweep of Simpson (Calif.), 65-60, on Dec. 17 in Redding. Pacific had three players score in double figures, led by 15 points each by
Daniel Zitani and
Charles Mosley.
• The Boxers' shooting touch did not follow them to the Bay Area on Dec. 19 as Pacific shot just 30 percent from the field in a 62-48 loss to UC Santa Cruz.
Danny Brakebush led the Boxers with 16 points as they managed just 16 of 53 shooting.
• Pacific gained revenge for a close loss to Walla Walla earlier in December in their return to the Stoller Center on Saturday, outscoring the Wolves 47-28 in the second half en route to an 80-55 victory.
Danny Brakebush led all scorers with 19 points.
• Pacific continues to be one of the top teams in the NWC and the nation in rebounding. Pacific is outrebounding opponents by an average of 13 boards per contest. The Boxers' 41.3 rebounds per game is second in the NWC and the team's +11.5 rebound margin ranks fifth at the NCAA Division III level. In addition, Pacific has allowed just six second chance points in their last three games.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
WHITWORTH
The defending NWC champion Pirates enter the week with a 9-1 record and 2-0 NWC mark. They were ranked No. 11 in the last D3Hoops.com Top-25 Poll, released on Dec. 16. Whitworth went 3-0 on a pre-Christmas California road trip of their own, knocking off Occidental 95-66 on Dec. 15, Chapman 67-62 on Dec. 18 and Redlands 70-57 on Dec. 19. The Pirates then returned home to defeat Simpson (Iowa) 77-69 at the Whitworth Fieldhouse on Dec. 22. Whitworth blistered the nets to shoot 56 percent (28-50) from the field, including an impressive 14 of 20 in the second half to come back from a 40-38 halftime deficit. Mack Larkin led the Pirates with a career high 17 points while Wade Gebbers added 16 points. Whitworth's non-conference schedule finishes at home on Dec. 31 as they host Hamline. Whitworth opened NWC play with a 63-56 win over Pacific Lutheran on Dec. 7 and a 78-45 trouncing of Puget Sound on Dec. 8. Dustin McConnell leads the Pirates in scoring, averaging 12.7 points per game. Colton McCargar is the top rebounder, averaging 4.7 per game. As a team, Whitworth is averaging 73.6 points and 33.9 rebounds per game while connecting on 48.4 percent of their shots from the field. They are outscoring opponents by an average of 12.3 points per game. Matt Logie is in his second year as Whitworth head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Whitworth leads 45-24
AGAINST CLEARY: Whitworth leads 4-0
LAST MEETING: Whitworth won 76-54 in Forest Grove on Feb. 11, 2012
WHITMAN
The surging Missionaries enter the week with an 8-3 record and a 2-0 mark in NWC games. Whitman went 2-1 over the holiday break, handing Walla Walla at 107-76 loss on Dec. 18 and beating Simpson (Iowa) 91-86 on Dec. 20. The Missionaries saw an eight-game win streak and a five-game home win streak end on Saturday in a 92-89 loss to Hamline. The Pipers surged in a second half in which they outscored the Missionaries 51-47, banking on a 60 percent shooting performance from the field. Whitman shot a respectable 46.2 percent from the field in the loss as all five starters finished scoring in double figures. Peter Clark led the way with 18 points. The Missionaries opened NWC play with a 111-77 win over Puget Sound on Dec. 7 and an 81-68 win over Pacific Lutheran on Dec. 8. Ben Eisenhardt leads Whitman in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 16.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. As a team, Whitman's fast-paced offense is averaging a league-leading 95.6 points per game, ranking second in Division III behind the vaunted run-and-gun offense of Grinnell (123.2 points per game), and are outscoring opponents by an average of 14.3 points per game. Whitman is also averaging 40.4 rebounds per game ans is connecting on 44.9 percent of their shots. Eric Bridgeland is in his fifth season as Whitman head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Pacific leads 53-40
AGAINST CLEARY: Whitman leads 3-1
LAST MEETING: Whitman won 78-71 in Forest Grove on Feb. 10, 2012
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
NO SHOT IN THE DARK: As expected, the shooting ability of
Danny Brakebush (Fr., Portland, Ore.) has been a key factor in the Pacific offense. A starter in the Boxers' last four games after coming off the bench in his first five games, Brakebush enters the week leading the Boxers and ranking fifth in the NWC with an average of 14.9 points per game. A strong three-point shooter, Brakebush is leads the Boxers and ranks third in the NWC with a .466 percentage. In the Dec. 16 NCAA Division III stats report, Brakebush ranked ninth nationally with a .529 three-point percentage and was ranked 31st with an average of three three-pointers made per game. The freshman led the Boxers in scoring in their last two games, scoring 16 points against UC Santa Cruz on Dec. 19 and 19 points against Walla Walla on Dec. 29. In addition to his ranking in scoring, Brakebush also enters the week ranked fifth in the NWC in total points (134), seventh in free throw percentage (.800) and 10th in field goals made (46).
THE TOUCH OF A TRANSFER: The ability on both ends of the floor of
Daniel Zitani (Jr., Oakland, Calif.) has paid big dividends for the Boxers in the first nine games. The junior transfer from Diablo Valley JC enters the week as the Boxers' leading rebounder. His average of 7.6 rebounds per game ranks third in the NWC. In addition, Zitani is second in the NWC in offensive rebounds (31), 10th in defensive rebounds (37) and is tied for seventh in blocks (7). On the offensive end, Zitani finished in double figures in two of the Boxers' last three games. He scored 15 points in the team's win over Simpson (Calif.) on Dec. 17 and 13 points in the Boxers' victory over Walla Walla on Saturday.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS...: Pacific has made the most of a low-scoring output by stepping up in a big way on the defensive end. The Boxers enter the week ranked third in the NWC with 64.8 points allowed per game. In the Dec. 16 NCAA Division III statistics report, the Boxers ranked 75th in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams 39.8 percent.
Where the Boxers have shined the most defensively, however, is in rebounding. Pacific enters the week ranked second in the NWC in rebounding, averaging 41.3 per game. The Boxers are out-rebounding opponents by an average of 12.6 rebounds per game. In their last two games, the Boxers have out-rebounded their opponents by a 90-52 margin and in their last three games they have allowed just five second chance points. Three Pacific players enter the week ranked in the NWC's top-10 in rebounding.
Daniel Zitani is third at 7.6 boards per game.
Colin Wester (Sr., Sherwood, Ore.) is fifth at 7.1 rebounds per game and
Dustin Bowser (Sr., Bellingham, Wash.) is eighth an 6.3 rebounds per game.
Charles Mosley (Sr., Hillsboro, Ore.) is just outside at 11th with an average of 6.0 boards per game.
A STRONG START: While losses to Walla Walla and UC Santa Cruz certainly slowed the Boxers, the team is still off to a strong start that ranks among their best in recent history. The Boxers will enter NWC with a 6-3 record, equaling the 6-3 start accomplished by the 2005-06 team. Last year's team finished with a 5-4 record in its first nine games in Head Coach
Tim Cleary's second year leading the Boxers.
A RECORD SHOOTING NIGHT: It wasn't until after the Nov. 17 home game against La Verne was in the books that anyone realized how well Pacific shot in their home opener. The Boxers finished shooting a single game record 69.2 percent from the field, connecting on 27 of 39 shots. That performance surpassed the record 68.9 percent set against Whitman back on Jan. 24, 1987. Pacific made 13 of 22 in the first half (59.1 percent), but ended up nearly perfect in the second half as the Boxers shot 82.4 percent (14-17). The Boxers also finished the night going 5 of 9 from three-point range.
ALL HOME GAMES TO BE VIDEO STREAMED: For the first time, Pacific will provide a live video stream of all 10 home men's basketball games as well as all 10 home women's basketball games. The stream can be accessed by visiting goboxers.com/webcasts. The stream for non-conference games will be provided without play-by-play audio. Matt Richert will return to the microphone to play descriptions for the Boxers' Northwest Conference contests this season.
CLEARY APPEARING ON WEEKLY SMALL COLLEGE HOOPS PODCAST: Head Coach
Tim Cleary is one of five coaches regularly featured on a new Portland small college basketball podcast hosted by Comcast SportsNet NW hoops analyst Greg Crawford. The Portland Metro Small College Hoops podcast runs live every Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. the live stream and archived podcasts can be accessed at
www.blogtalkradio.com/smallcollegehoops.
