Men's Basketball Weekly Notebook
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THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC MEN'S BASKETBALL
WILLAMETTE AT PACIFIC
Game No. 21/Home Game No. 9
Tues., Feb. 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
PACIFIC AT LINFIELD
Game No. 22/Away Game No. 10
Fri., Feb. 8, 8 p.m., Ted Wilson Gymnasium, McMinnville, Ore.
Live Stats:
bit.ly/XjpgMU
Live Audio Webcast:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
Live Video Webcast:
client.stretchinternet.com/client/linfield.portal#
PACIFIC LUTHERAN AT PACIFIC
Game No. 23/Home Game No. 10
Sat., Feb. 9, 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
ANOTHER THREE GAME WEEK FOLLOWS TOUGH ROAD TRIP
The Pacific men's basketball team follows up a tough eastern Washington road trip with their second three-game week in the last three weeks. The Boxers host Willamette on Tuesday, then head to Linfield on Friday before coming home to host Pacific Lutheran on Saturday. The Boxers will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak and stay in Northwest Conference playoff contention.
BOXER BYTES
• Pacific could not rebound from a 61 percent first half shooting performance by Whitman on Friday as the Missionaries cruised to a 101-68 win over the Boxers.
Charles Mosley led a 46 percent shooting night for the Boxers with 12 points.
• No. 3 ranked Whitworth one-upped their eastern Washington counterparts on Saturday night, shooting 74 percent in the first half and 62 percent for the game to score a 98-63 win over the Boxers.
Marc Eppinger led the Boxers off the bench with 15 points.
• Despite the losses, Pacific enters the week in fifth place in the NWC at 5-6, but sit two games behind fourth place Lewis & Clark for the fourth and final NWC playoff berth. Pacific still needs two wins in their final five games for their first winning season since 1999-2000.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
WILLAMETTE
The Bearcats enter the week in sixth place in the NWC at 4-7 and are 7-13 overall. Like the Boxers, Willamette will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak. On Friday, the Bearcats took an 80-74 loss at George Fox. The Bruins ran away with the game in the second half, shooting 51.7 percent in the stanza. Elliott Babcock-Krenk led four Willamette players in double figures with 15 points. Oliver Hughes and Terrell Malley added 14 points. At home on Saturday, WIllamette took another close loss in an 78-70 defeat to Puget Sound. The Loggers led from the three-minute mark of the first half on, capitalizing on 19 of 25 from the free throw line. Malley led the Bearcats with 29 points, shooting 10 of 18 from the field and 3 of 5 from three-point range. Malley leads the NWC with an average of 17.7 points per game while Sean Dart leads the league in rebounding with an average of 8.9 boards per game. As a team, Willamette is averaging 72.1 points and 39.9 rebounds per game, but are being outscored by an average of six points per game. Kip Ioane is in his fourth year as Willamette head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Willamette leads 72-33
AGAINST CLEARY: Pacific leads 4-1
LAST MEETING: Pacific won 97-96 (ot) in Salem, Ore., on Jan. 25, 2013
LINFIELD
The struggling Wildcats enter the week ninth in the NWC at 2-10 and are 3-18 overall. Linfield will be looking to snap a seven-game losing streak after dropping two weekend road game. The Wildcats were 62-54 losers to Pacific Lutheran on Friday night in Tacoma. Linfield outshot the Lutes 47 percent to 35 percent, but the Lutes' eight three-pointers and 20 points off turnovers proved to be the difference. Brandon Harris was the only Linfield player to score in double figures, finishing with 10. Linfield struggled from the field all night on Saturday, finishing at 29.2 percent in a 75-55 loss at George Fox. Chris Dirks led the Wildcats with a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds while Forrest Paxton finished with 10 points. Center Andrew Batiuk leads the Wildcats with an average of 18.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, but has not played for the last three games. Harris is averaging 11.2 points per game. As a team, Linfield is averaging 64.2 points and 36.8 rebounds per game and are being outscored by an average of 10 points per game. Larry Doty is in his 26th year as Linfield head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Linfield leads 72-27
AGAINST CLEARY: Linfield leads 3-2
LAST MEETING: Pacific won 69-53 in Forest Grove on Jan. 12, 2013
PACIFIC LUTHERAN
The Lutes enter the week in seventh place in the NWC at 4-8 and are 6-15 overall. PLU opened the week by taking a 76-60 to crosstown rival Puget Sound on Tuesday night. The Lutes shot 59.3 percent in the first half, but trailed 40-36 at halftime and could not counteract a 14 for 19 performance at the free throw line by the Loggers. Cameron Schilling led PLU with 19 points. On Saturday, the Lutes rebounded to take a 62-54 road win from Linfield. The Lutes won the game in the first half, shooting 52.2 percent in the opening 20 minutes and hit eight three-pointers on the night. Andrew Earnest led the Lutes off the bench with 16 points, including four three-pointers. Schilling leads the PLU offense, averaging 14.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. He ranks third in the NWC in rebounding. As a team, the Lutes are avaeraging 63.6 points and 33.3 rebounds per game. Steve Dickerson is in his seventh year as Pacific Lutheran head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: PLU leads 62-30
AGAINST CLEARY: PLU leads 3-2
LAST MEETING: Pacific won 81-73 in Tacoma, Wash., on Jan. 11, 2013
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
STEPPING UP: While
Marc Eppinger (So., Camas, Wash.) has seen few minutes over the course of the season, he did his part to earn a few more over the final five game games of the 2012-13 campaign. Eppinger stepped in to score 26 points in 21 minutes played against Whitman and Whitworth over the weekend, averaging 13 points in the two contests. On Friday, Eppinger scored 11 points on 3 of 4 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free throw line in just seven minutes. On Saturday, Eppinger scored 15 points in 14 minutes on 4 of 6 from the field, 3 of 4 from three-point range and 4 of 4 from the free throw line. Eppinger has seen action in 11 games this season and enters the week averaging 2.7 points per game.
MOSLEY'S CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT: In a week where offense proved to be a hard to find commodity,
Charles Mosley (Sr., Hillsboro, Ore.) gave the Boxers their steadiest effort. Mosley scored double digits in both games and finished the week shooting 10 of 16 from the field and 3 of 3 from the free throw line. He shot 5 of 8 from the field in both games. On Friday, Mosley provided 12 points and five rebounds in the loss to Whitman. On Saturday, Mosley scored 11 and had seven rebounds (including five offensive boards) in the loss to Whitworth. Mosley has proven to be consistent since returning to the starting lineup for the Boxers. He enters the week as the Boxers third leading scorer, averaging 9.4 points per game and is the team's second leading rebounder at 5.3 boards per game. Mosley is ranked ninth in the NWC in rebounding and is tied for third with his 45 offensive rebounds.
WESTER'S SPARK: Colin Wester's (Sr., Sherwood, Ore.) scoring spark helped provide the Boxers some much needed offense in Saturday's loss to Whitworth on Saturday. Wester led Pacific's starters with 13 points, hitting 5 of 8 from the field and 3 of 4 from three-point range. Wester enters thr week as the Boxers' second leading scorer and the seventh best scorer in the NWC, averaging 14.4 points per game. He also ranks fifth in the NWC with 31 steals and is tied for seventh with 53 assists.
STILL ONE TO WATCH: Despite being limited in his scoring ability on the eastern Washington road trip,
Danny Brakebush (Fr., Portland, Ore.) is still a scorer to watch for the Boxers. The freshman enters the week ranked fifth in the NWC in scoring at 14.8 points per game. He continues to be one of the top three-point shooters in the league, ranking second with 56 three-pointers made and making 44.4 percent of his shots. In addition, Brakebush is one of the top free throw shooters in the citcuit, ranking seventh at 80 percent. In the Jan. 31 NCAA Division III ststistical rankings, Brakebush ranked 15th in three-point shooting at 44.6 percent and 16th with three three-pointers made per game.
WINNING SEASON IN REACH: The recent three-game losing streak has not erased the Boxers' chances at a winning season. The Boxers need just two more wins to wrap up their first winning record since 1999-2000. Pacific's 11 wins so far in 2012-13 are the team's most since the 2007-08 campaign.
BRAKEBUSH SELECTED TO D3HOOPS.COM TEAM OF THE WEEK: Danny Brakebush's impressive performances against Pacific Lutheran on Jan. 11 and Linfield on Jan. 12 earned the freshman guard selection selection to the D3Hoops.com Team of the Week for the week of Jan. 7-13. Brakebush finished the week scoring 43 points in the two games while shooting 62.5 percent from both the field (15-24) and the three-point line (10-16). He scored a Pacific season-high 26 points in the Boxers road win at Pacific Lutheran, hitting 9 of 15 from the field and 5 of 10 from three-point range. While selected to the national honor roll for the week. Brakebush's performances finished as honorable mention for the Northwest Conference's Student-Athlete of the Week honor for the same week.
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 call 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.
PACIFIC PICKED EIGHTH IN NWC PRESEASON POLL: Northwest Conference coaches have picked Pacific to finish eighth in the league this season according to results of the annual coaches poll, released on Monday. The Boxers received 20 of a possible 80 votes in the poll, finishing seven points of ahead of Willamette, who was selected ninth. Linfield was selected seventh with 22 points while George Fox is four points ahead of the Boxers, picked to finish sixth. Whitworth was picked to win their fourth consecutive NWC title, gaining seven first place votes and a total of 70 points. Whitman is selected to finish second with 54 points, including two first place votes.
