Batey Is Clutch In The Stretch As Boxers Win Season Finale

Batey Is Clutch In The Stretch As Boxers Win Season Finale

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Box Score

TACOMA, Wash. – Jordan Batey (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) scored eight of his 11 points in the final five minutes Saturday, leading Pacific to a 58-54 victory over Puget Sound in the Boxers' 2013-14 men's basketball season finale at Memorial Field House.
 
Batey led Pacific in scoring and accounted for the Boxers' final eight points of the contest.  His three-pointer with 5:48 to go gave Pacific a 49-47 lead while his two free throws with 12 seconds left sealed the contest.
 
Mitch Wettig (Jr., Bend, Ore.) added a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds while Budweiser Hawkins (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev.) ended his Pacific career with 10 points.  Pacific shot just 34.5 percent from the field for the night (20-58), but managed to go 10 of 13 from the free throw line.
 
Rex Nelson and Erin Barber each had 12 points to lead Puget Sound while A.J. Maw finished with 11 points.  The Loggers finished the night shooting 35.7 percent from the field (20-56) and out-rebounded the Boxers 43-35.
 
With the win, Pacific improved to 16-9 overall, their most wins since the 1999-2000 season, and finished tied for fifth in the NWC with George Fox at 9-7.  Puget Sound dropped to 14-11 and tied for third place in the league with Lewis & Clark at 10-6.  By virtue of tiebreakers, Puget Sound earns the No. 4 seed to the NWC Tournament and will play at Whitworth on Thursday.
 
With the teams' low shooting percentages, the game proved to be a grinding battle with 11 lead changes.  Puget Sound came closest to mounting a big lead in the first half, going up 10-5 on Barber's lay-in five minutes into the game.  Three-pointers by Daniel Zitani (Sr., Oakland, Calif.) and Landon Littlefield (So., Henderson, Nev.) allowed the Boxers to go up one at the 12:49 mark.
 
Puget Sound went up four points late in the period, with Maw's free throw with 58 seconds left made it a 25-21 lead, but Coby Proctor (Jr., Sublimity, Ore.) hit a lay-up on the Boxers' next possession to make it a 25-23 halftime lead.
 
The tight game continued in the second half.  Puget Sound built their biggest lead of six points, 41-35, on Keith Shattuck's three-pointer with 13 minutes to go, but the Boxers closed back to within two on Wettig's lay-in at the 11:12 mark and took the 46-45 lead on Eric Moore's (Sr., Salem, Ore.) three-pointer with 7:54 to go.
 
Puget Sound took the lead back on Maw's two free throws with 6:28 left, but then Batey stepped up to send the Boxers off on a high note.  He gave Pacific the lead for good with his three-pointer with 5:48 left.
 
Tonight's game was the final Pacific contest for five seniors: Hawkins, Zitani, Moore, Cameron Hayes (Milton, Wash.) and Connor Hurley (Portland, Ore.).
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