This Week
Friday, Feb. 12, Pacific Boxers (10-11/4-6 NWC) vs. Pacific Lutheran Lutes (14-7/7-5)
Stoller Center, Forest Grove, Ore., 8 p.m.
All-Time Series: Pacific Lutheran leads 64-34, Lutes won 73-61 in Jan. in Tacoma, and they split two games in '14-15.
 
Saturday, Feb. 13, Pacific Boxers vs. Puget Sound Loggers (12-9/7-5)
Stoller Center, Forest Grove, Ore., 6 p.m.
All-Time Series: Puget Sound leads 30-15, UPS won 77-49 in Jan., they split two games in '14-15.
 
Pacific returns for its final two home games of the season, hosting the Tacoma schools on Friday and Saturday. They wrap the season on Feb. 19-20 at Linfield and Lewis & Clark. The Boxers need to win three of the four games to finish above .500.
 
Goal in Sight: Coach Tim Cleary's squad looks to finish the year better than .500. If they can pull it off, by winning three of their final four, that will make it three of the past four seasons for Pacific—and they just missed last year at 12-13.
 
Senior Salute: Pacific will say goodbye to five seniors on Saturday night: DeVon Pouncey, Bobby Ahern, J.T. Campbell, Skyler Burgess and Daniel Gunther. A brief presentation will be made prior to Saturday's 6 p.m. tip-off.
 
Washington Wildfire: The Boxers had the tough assignment last weekend of taking on the top two teams in the Northwest Conference, who also happened to be two of the top clubs in the nation. First up was Whitman, ranked No. 20, who had just knocked No. 1 Whitworth off its unbeaten perch three days earlier. Pacific played the Missionaries tough, but ultimately came up short, 88-75. And of course, then ran into an angry and motivated Whitworth squad, coming off its first loss of the season. The Pirates played with purpose and beat down their visitors, 84-57.
 
Extra Time: A little over a week ago, Pacific lost a double overtime clash to George Fox, 108-101. That made the Boxers 1-2 in extra time games this season. And Cleary's team doesn't mess around with just a single extra five-minute overtime period. They haven't played one of those yet this year. There was the double OT loss at GFU and two TRIPLE overtime games on the ledger. Pacific lost 101-97 in a non-conference game early in the year at Menlo College, and they clipped league rival Lewis & Clark 80-77 in three additional periods just a little over two weeks ago.
 
Overtime, Historical Edition: To get a little perspective on the oddity of this year's overtime situation, the Boxers didn't have any overtime games last year and had just two in 2013-14 (they went 1-1 in those single overtime games). To find the last time that Pacific played in a double overtime game, you have to go back to the 2010-11 season when they went two extra periods and lost to Linfield. The last time they played three overtimes was in the 1994-95 campaign, when they took an extra 15 minutes to top Carroll College. In school history, the Boxers or Badgers have never had two triple overtime and one double overtime games in the same season. 
 
Fans Get Bonus Time and Wins: The crowd of 1,100 in the Stoller Center for the triple overtime win over the Pioneers on January 30 was Pacific's largest crowd since February of 2013—when the Boxers also won in overtime, this time against Pacific Lutheran (1,200). The Boxers also snapped a 17-game losing streak against the Pioneers with the win. Pacific is 7-3 this season in the friendly confines of the Boxer Den.
 
Chairmen of the Boards: Despite not having a player over 6'6", the Boxers have controlled the backboards so far this season. On the year they have a +10.8 advantage over their opponents, tops in the NWC and third in the NCAA. Skyler Burgess leads the team with 8.0 rebounds a contest and Nate Olowo is next at 6.8. Michael Joseph adds 6.5 boards a contest.
 
Stat sheet: In the Northwest Conference, DeVon Pouncey is fifth in field goal accuracy (.568), while Skyler Burgess is fourth in that same category (.586), third in rebounds per game (8.0) and tied for third in blocked shots (1.1).
 
Boxer Balance: Pacific's attack through 21 games shows a balanced stat sheet. Four players average in double figures for the Boxers, and only 2.5 points per game separate the leading scorer from the fourth. Additionally, a fifth player sits at 9.3 ppg. K.C. Harrison checks in at 13.0 points a game and a team-best 49 assists, Skyler Burgess is next at 11.0 points per game, a team-best 8.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks a game. DeVon Pouncey averages 10.5, Michael Joseph adds 9.3 points, 6.6 rebounds a contest and a team-leading 27 steals. Bobby Ahern returned from injury two weeks ago, after missing eight games and averages 10.8 an outing.
 
Cleary Capsule: Pacific head coach Tim Cleary is now in his sixth season in Forest Grove. Boise State's former top assistant coach is now 66-80 on the Boxer sidelines, leading Pacific to back-to-back winning seasons in 2012-13 and 2013-14—and then just missed last year when his team finished 12-13. Pacific went 15-10 three seasons ago and 16-9 in '13-14.
 
Probable Starters: Coach Clearly likely will send this group to the floor this weekend when the starters are announced.
*G—#2 K.C. Harrison (6-2, 185, Jr., Las Vegas, Nev./Grays Harbor JC)
*G—#22 Michael Joseph (6-1, 205, Jr., Anchorage, Alaska/Columbia Basin JC)
*G—#10 Bobby Ahern (6-2, 200, Sr., Madras, Ore.)
*F—#23 Skyler Burgess (6-5, 215, Sr., Riverton, Utah/Treasure Valley JC)
*F—#44 Nate Olowo (6-6, 210, So., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Alta Loma HS)
 
Players of the Week: Senior forward Skyler Burgess was named the Northwest Conference Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week on Dec. 7 and was named to the D3Hoops.com Team of the Week on Dec. 8. In addition to 24 total rebounds in two wins, the 6-5 senior forward also scored 24 and 22 points respectively against Willamette and George Fox. In that process, he nailed 21 of 28 shots from the field (75 percent) and also had four assists and three blocked shots. The D3Hoops award is given to only five NCAA Division III players from across the country each week. Burgess was Pacific's second NWC honoree this season, as Michael Joseph also earned the honor on Nov. 11 after scoring 49 points in three games with 25 rebounds and six steals.
 
Pre-Season Look: Pre-season No. 3 nationally ranked Whitworth was the coach's pick to win the Northwest Conference again this season. The Pirates have won eight of the last nine league titles. The poll favored Whitworth, followed by Whitman, Lewis & Clark, Willamette, Puget Sound, Pacific, George Fox, Pacific Lutheran and Linfield. The current NWC standings can be found here. http://nwcsports.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/standings
 
Lute Lessons: The Lutes have won three in a row and four of their last five in improving to 14-7 on the year and 7-5 in the NWC, tied for the third in the standings and a virtual lock for the conference tournament. PLU topped Linfield (81-63) and George Fox (67-61) this past weekend and defeated the Boxers 73-61 in Forest Grove last month. Brandon Lester (Jr., 5-11, Sammamish, Wash.) is second in the conference in scoring (16.6), while Dylan Foreman (So., 6-2, Bellevue, Wash.) is right behind him at 15.5 ppg (fifth in NWC) and is converting .465 three-point attempts (second NWC). Bryce Miller (Sr., 6-6, Edgewood, Wash.) is second in the league with 8.9 rebounds and adds 13.5 points. Jared Christy (Fr., 6-6, Spokane, Wash.) is one of the top rookies in the NWC with 8.8 points and 8.0 rebounds a contest. Head coach Steve Dickerson is in his tenth season on the Lute bench. He came to PLU after 33 years of coaching in the high school ranks in Columbus, Ohio. His career mark with the Lutes is 101-136, with his best season coming in 2010-11 (15-10).
 
Logger Loop: Puget Sound is tied for third in the conference with PLU (7-5), three games ahead of the next log jam of teams for the fourth and final tournament playoff spot. The Loggers are 12-9 overall and dropped Pacific 77-49 in January. Kohl Meyer (Jr., 6-5, San Diego, Calif.) is one of the league's most complete players, averaging 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.2 points a game. Carlos Mancasola (Jr., 6-2, Redding, Calif.) adds 13.6 points a contest. Head coach Justin Lunt is in his tenth season at UPS, putting together a 149-105 career mark. His 2008-09 Logger team went 25-4 and 16-0 in the NWC, advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16. Last year, Puget Sound went 12-12 overall and 7-9 in conference play.
 
Looking Ahead: After this weekends games, the Boxers will play their final two games of the season at Linfield (Feb 12) and Lewis & Clark (Feb. 13).
 
Watch and Listen: Pacific's NWC basketball games are streamed live at goboxers.com with Matt Richert handling the play-by-play. Additionally, tune in on Sunday evenings to listen to Coach Cleary on the Portland Metro Small College Hoops Podcast, hosted by Greg Crawford. The show begins at 9:30 p.m. and can be found at http://bit.ly/1x4RjqG.