Men's Basketball Weekly Notebook
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THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC MEN'S BASKETBALL
GEORGE FOX AT PACIFIC
Game No. 21/Home Game No. 9
Tues., Feb. 11, 8 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
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Live Audio & Video
PACIFIC AT PACIFIC LUTHERAN
Game No. 22/Away Game No. 8
Fri., Feb. 14, 8 p.m., Olson Auditorium, Tacoma, Wash.
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Live Audio
LEWIS & CLARK AT PACIFIC
Game No. 23/Home Game No. 10
Sat., Feb. 15, 8 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
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Live Audio & Video
SNOWY WEEKEND GIVES BOXERS A THREE-GAME WEEK
The foot of snow that fell in Forest Grove, and the dicey roads that accompanied the snow, has given the Pacific men's basketball team a three-game week. Pacific begins with a re-scheduled contest against George Fox on Tuesday. That will be folllowed by the Boxers' regularly scheduled games at Pacific Lutheran on Friday and at home against Lewis & Clark on Saturday.
BOXER BYTES
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Daniel Zitani notched his sixth double-double of the season, leading four Pacific players to score in double figures as the Boxers beat Willamette 77-71. Zitani scored 21 points to go along with 11 rebounds, an assist, two blocks and two steals.
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Riley Grandinetti put together his best effort of the NWC on Tuesday, coming off the bench to score 16 points on 6 of 9 from the field and 4 of 7 from three-point range. He led a night that saw the Boxers shoot 45.8 percent from beyond the arc, their third best outside performance of the season.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
GEORGE FOX
The Bruins enter the week in third place in the NWC at 6-4 and are 13-6 overall. George Fox has won 3 for their last four games, but did not get a game in last week due to the snow in the Willamette Valley. They split their games the previous week. On Jan. 28, the Bruins found themselves shocked on the road by Linfield 74-72. Linfield outscored George Fox 37-31 in the second half and shot 60 percent from the field. Ryan Cali won the game with his lay-in with 19 seconds left. The Bruins shot 52.3 percent from the field, led by a 21-point performance by A.J. Grant. George Fox returned to the win column on Feb. 1, beating Pacific Lutheran at home 78-60. The Bruins pulled away in the second half, outscoring the Lutes 38-25. Sean Atkins led the way for the Bruins with 23 points while Grant and Spencer Bolte each scored 17. Bolte leads the George Fox offense, averaging 16.5 points per game, while Atkins is averaging 16.4 points per game. Atkins is also the Bruins' leading rebounder, averaging 6.2 rebounds per game. As a team, George Fox is averaging 87.7 points and 34.9 rebounds per game and is shooting a league-leading 48.1 percent from the field. The Bruins are outscoring opponents by an average of six points per game. Maco "Shark" Hamilton is in his first year as George Fox head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: George Fox leads 43-41Â Â
 AGAINST CLEARY: George Fox leads 6-1
LAST MEETING: George Fox won 80-68 in Newberg, Ore., on Jan. 11, 2014
PACIFIC LUTHERAN
The Lutes enter the week in seventh place in the NWC at 4-8 and are 7-14 overall after dropping both games last week against the eastern Washington schools. On Friday, the Lutes were 71-57 losers to Whitman. The Missionaries limited PLU to 32.7 percent from the field (18-55) and trailed 46-25 at halftime. Whitman finished the night shooting 48.1 percent from the field. Brandon Lester led PLU with 20 points. On Saturday, the Lutes fell to Whitworth 70-58. PLU trailed by just three points, 31-28, in the hard-fought game, but the Pirates shot 14 of 18 from the free throw line in the second half, which made the difference in the game. Lester and Bryce Miller each had 12 points to lead PLU. Lester is the Lutes' leading scorer, averaging 10.9 points per game, while Arvid Isaksen is averaging 10.8 points and a team-leading 6.1 rebounds per game. As a team, PLU is averaging 66.4 points and 32 rebounds per game and are shooting 43.9 percent from the field. The Lutes are being outscored by an average of 3.4 points per game. Steve Dickerson is in his eighth season as PLU head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Pacific Lutheran leads 62-32Â Â Â
AGAINST CLEARY: Pacific Lutheran leads 3-2
LAST MEETING: Pacific won 72-69 in Forest Grove on Jan. 18, 2014
LEWIS & CLARK
The Pioneers enter the week in fifth place in the NWC at 5-5 and are 12-7 overall. Lewis & Clark saw both of their weekend games snowed out as well as they were scheduled to host Linfield and play at George Fox. The Linfield game will be played Tuesday and the George Fox game on Feb. 18. The Pioneers are on a four-game losing streak, having lost both the previous weekend to the Tacoma schools. On Jan. 31, the Pioneers took a 65-59 loss to Pacific Lutheran. The Lutes led for all but the first two minutes of the game and L&C could not complete a late comeback that saw the Pioneers come back from a 10-point deficit. Justin Leathers led L&C with 17 points and nine rebounds. On Saturday, the Pioneers took a close 60-56 loss to Puget Sound. L&C led 50-42 with 8:16 to go, but the Loggers rallied to outscore the Pioneers 18-6 down the stretch to steal the victory. Kurt Parker came off the bench to lead L&C with 12 points while Connor Freeberg added 11 points. Parker leads the L&C offense, averaging 12.7 points per game while Freeberg is averaging 11.2 points per game. Leathers is the team's top rebounder, averaging 6.4 rebounds per contest. As a team, L&C is averaging 82.3 points and a league-leading 45.5 rebounds per game. They are outscoring opponents by an average of 11 points per game. Dinari Foreman is in his third season as L&C head coach.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Lewis & Clark leads 71-35Â Â Â
AGAINST CLEARY: Lewis & Clark leads 5-0
LAST MEETING: Lewis & Clark won 63-55 in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 17, 2014
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
DOUBLE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS: It had been almost a month since
Daniel Zitani (Sr., Oakland, Calif.) had finished a game with a double-double. He ended that streak on Tuesday when the senior forward notched his sixth double-double of the season to lead Pacific in their victory over Willamette. Zitani finished with 21 points to go along with 11 rebounds, one assist, two blocks and two steals. He shot 5 of 12 from the field and a solid 11 of 18 from the free throw line. He led four Pacific players to score in double figures in the victory. Zitani has been a scoring machine all season for the Boxers, finishing in double digits in all but three games and has scored 20 or more points nine times. He continues to lead the NWC in scoring with an average of 18.8 points per game and ranks second with 7.8 rebounds per game. Zitani also leds the NWC in field goals made (132), free throws made (105) and points (375) and ranks second in total rebounds (157) and defensive rebounds (108). In addition, Zitani continues to be one of the most accurate shooters in the league, ranking sixth with a .514 field goal percentage.
A GRAND COMEBACK: Riley Grandinetti (Jr., Murray, Utah) posted his best conference of the NWC season on Tuesday and played a big part in the Boxers' win over Willamette on Tuesday. Grandinetti came off the bench to score 16 points in the win, shooting 6 of 9 from the field and a team-leading 4 of 7 from three-point range. Grandinetti had seen a bump in his scoring output since being moved into a reserve role two games ago. He enters the week as the Boxers' second leading scorer, averaging 8.9 points per game. He is ranked seventh in the NWC in three-pointers made with 44 and ranks ninth in the league with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2.
SOLID STARTING PRESENCE: Jordan Batey (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) continues to make the most of his enhanced role in the lineup. He came up big in his second start for the Boxers on Tuesday, scoring 13 points in the victory over Willamette. He went 4 of 7 from the field, 3 of 6 from three-point range and 2 of 2 from the free throw line to go along with a team-high four assists. The scoring performance was Batey's second 13-point game in three contests and his third double-digit performance in the last five games. Batey enters the week as the Boxers' fourth leading scorer, averaging 7.4 points per game. He is also the team's top free throw shooter at 83.7 percent, but has not made the NWC minimum of two free throws made per game.
BALL SECURITY: Pacific continues to be the top team in league in terms of ball security. The Boxers enter the week averaging 10.6 turnovers per game, well ahead of second place Pacific Lutheran and Whitworth (11.8 per game). The Boxers ranked 17th among NCAA Division III teams in turnovers per game in the last Division III stats report, released on Feb. 6. The Boxers were also ranked 25th in fewest turnovers with 211. Pacific has finished with single digit turnovers in four of their last six games.
STRONG DEFENSIVE TEAM: Pacific continues to be one of the top defensive teams in the NWC. The Boxers enter the week leading the league in points allowed at 65.6 points per game. They ranked 55th in the Feb. 6 NCAA Division III statistics report in the category.
KEEPING IT CLEAN: Pacific is responding to the new national emphasis by referees on clean play by keeping their fouls down. The Boxers are committing just 16.0 personal fouls per game, ranking the Boxers first in the NWC and 27th among NCAA Division III teams. Pacific also ranks 48th in Division III in fewest fouls with 319 (as of Feb. 6). Pacific saw its first foul disqualifications of the season against Puget Sound on Jan. 24 after going 14 games without a player fouling out.
STREAKING: Pacific saw their best win streak in over a decade end with the loss to Whitworth on Jan. 3. The six-game win streak, which began with a 53-35 home win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Nov. 22 was the team's best since the 1999-2000 season, when the Boxers won six straight to close out the first half of their NWC season and won the first three games of the second half of the schedule.
FASTEST TO 10 WINS: With their victory over Pacific Lutheran on Jan. 18, Pacific amassed 10 wins in the fewest games since the 1999-2000 season. Pacific reached the 10-win plateau in 15 games this season. It is also the second 10-win season under Head Coach
Tim Cleary. The Boxers needed 16 games to reach 10 wins in 2012-13 on their way to a 15-10 finish.
CLEARY APPEARING ON WEEKLY SMALL COLLEGE HOOPS PODCAST: Head Coach
Tim Cleary is one of five coaches regularly featured on a 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 9:30 p.m. (Cleary usually appears on the show in the 9:52 p.m. time slot). The live stream and archived podcasts can be accessed at
www.blogtalkradio.com/smallcollegehoops.
SEASON HONORS: The following Pacific players have earned weekly honors during the course of the 2013-14 season:
Daniel Zitani: NWC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week for week of Dec. 16-22 for scoring 23 points and 12 rebounds in 71-70 overtime victory over Occidental...NWC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week and D3Hoops.com Team of the Week for week of Dec. 9-15 for scoring 47 points with two double-doubles in wins at Pomona-Pitzer and Pacifica...NWC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week for the week of Nov. 11-17 after averaging 20.2 points per game and led the Boxers in scoring in two of the three games of their season-opening Southern California road trip.
PACIFIC PICKED FIFTH IN NWC PRESEASON POLL: Northwest Conference coaches have picked Pacific to repeat their fifth place finish in the annual preseason poll released in early November. The Boxers received 30 of a possible 72 points in the poll after finishing 15-10 overall and 9-7 in the NWC last season. Whitworth is selected to repeat as conference champion, receiving 70 votes and seven of the league's nine first place votes. Whitman is picked second with 58 points and two first place votes. Lewis & Clark was picked third with 48 points, followed by George Fox (44), Pacific (30), Puget Sound (27), Pacific Lutheran (23), Linfield (19) and Willamette (14).
