Batey & Switch: Jordan's 20 Lifts Boxers To Win Over Whitman

Batey & Switch: Jordan's 20 Lifts Boxers To Win Over Whitman

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Box Score

FOREST GROVE – Jordan Batey (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) scored a season-high 20 points, including the game-winning free throws with seven seconds left, to lead Pacific to a hard-fought 66-65 victory over Whitman Saturday in Northwest Conference men's basketball action at the Stoller Center.
 
Batey came alive to go 6 of 11 from the field and 4 of 6 from three-point range.  His biggest shots, however, came from the free throw line as his two makes stemmed a late run that brought the Missionaries back from a 12-point deficit midway through the half.
 
With the win, Pacific improved to 8-3 on the season and 1-1 in NWC play.  The Boxers have now won seven of their last eight games.  Whitman fell to 6-5 overall, 1-1 NWC.
 
Mitch Wettig (Jr., Bend, Ore.) added 10 points, coming off the bench as Head Coach Tim Cleary started the game with a guard-heavy lineup to counter Whitman's potent dribble-drive offense.  Coby Proctor (Jr., Sublimity, Ore.) added nine points, all in the second half, to go with eight assists.  Daniel Zitani (Sr., Oakland, Calif.) finished just short of a double-double with eight points and a game-high nine rebounds.
 
Pacific recovered well from a poor shooting night against Whitworth on Friday, shooting 45.1 percent from the field (23-51), 35 percent from three-point range (7-20) and a critical 13 of 15 from the free throw line.
 
Matt Mounier led Whitman with 16 points, 12 of which came from the three-point line, to go along with seven rebounds.  Tochi Oti came off the bench to score 14.  The Missionaries finished shooting 38.6 percent from the field (22-57), 7 of 17 from three-point range and just 14 of 22 from the free throw line.
 
Neither team led by more than three points in a nip-and-tuck first half that saw 10 ties and 16 lead changes.  Pacific held a three-point lead three times in the stanza.  Wettig's lay-in at the 10:02 mark gave the Boxers the 18-15 lead and Whitman pulled ahead 30-27 on Oti's short-range shot with 3:58 left.  Batey put the Boxers back up three, 33-30, with his second three-pointer of the game with 47 seconds to go and Pacific went into halftime with a 35-33 lead.
 
Pacific did their part to try and put the game away early in the second half.  The Boxers scored the first two baskets of the period, going up 39-33 on Zitani's lay-up one minute in.  The Missionaries came back to within 41-40 on Oti's jumper at the 14:38, but Pacific responded with 13-2 run.  Batey closed the run with his third three-pointer with 11:18 to go, giving Pacific their biggest lead at 54-42.
 
Whitman replied with a 16-3 run of their own over the next eight minutes, tying the contest at 57-57 on Mounier's three with 4:11 to go and went up 59-57 on Evan Martin's lay-in with 2:26 left.  The game was tied five more times down the stretch before Batey canned his game-winning free throws with seven seconds left.  Josh Duckworth had a look at a game-winner as time expired, but his short jumper rimmed off.
 
Pacific will take to the road for their next three games, opening the trip on Tuesday at Willamette.  The game can be heard live via a live audio webcast at GoBoxers.com.  Whitman returns home and will host Puget Sound on Friday.
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