Boxer Bits — Weekly Notes (Linfield, Lewis & Clark)
This WeekFriday, Feb. 19, Pacific Boxers (11-12/5-9 NWC) vs. Linfield Wildcats (10-13/4-10)
Ted Wilson Gymnasium, McMinnville, Ore., 8 p.m.
All-Time Series: Linfield leads, 73-32. Wildcats won 53-42 in January.
Saturday, Feb. 20, Pacific Boxers vs. Lewis & Clark Pioneers (9-13/5-9)
Pamplin Sports Center, Portland, Ore., 6 p.m.
All-Time Series: Lewis & Clark leads, 74-35. Boxers won 80-77 in 3 OT in January.
Pacific signs off on the 2015-16 season this coming weekend with road games at Linfield (Friday) and Lewis & Clark (Saturday). The Boxers are coming off a crazy pair of games at home last weekend that saw Pacific Lutheran steal a win in the final seconds, while Pacific did the same to Puget Sound the next night on a buzzer beater. Goal in Sight: Coach
Tim Cleary's squad looks to finish the year better than .500. If they can pull it off, by winning both games on the road, that will make it three of the past four seasons for Pacific—and they just missed last year at 12-13.
Heart Stoppers: The Boxers closed out the home portion of their schedule with wild finishes against Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound. Against PLU, the Boxers had the ball and were milking the clock for a final shot when a Lute steal and basket with 1.7 seconds left flipped the game to the visitors (54-51). The next night against the Loggers, UPS drove for the winning shot with six seconds left, but
Skyler Burgess' block and
K.C. Harrison's 18-footer as time expired gave the home team the 65-63 win and sent five seniors out in style:
DeVon Pouncey, Bobby Ahern, J.T. Campbell, Burgess and
Daniel Gunther. The Boxers finished 8-4 this season in games played at the Stoller Center.
Field is Set: The top four teams in the Northwest Conference final standings qualify for the conference tournament at the site of the league champ. The four are already set heading into the final weekend. Here are the standings, with conference-only records listed.
Whitworth 13-1
Whitman 12-2
Pacific Lutheran 9-5
Puget Sound 8-6
Pacific 5-9
Lewis & Clark 5-9
Linfield 4-10
Willamette 4-10
George Fox 3-11
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 67-81 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)
Wildcat Words: Linfield has dropped three games in a row and have lost five of six—dating back to a 53-42 win over Pacific in Forest Grove last month. The Wildcats held Pacific to a season-low point total in that game, one night after they had scored 80 against Lewis & Clark. The Boxers had won the last six contests against Linfield prior to the loss. The Wildcats are 10-13 overall and just one game back of the Boxers in the NWC standings at 4-10.
Kyle Maloof (6-3, Jr., Claremont, Calif.), a transfer from Rio Hondo College leads the team with 12.1 points a game, 6.3 rebounds and a team-best 45 assists. Rookie
Vince Romeo (5-10, Fr., Martinez, Calif.) adds 9.9 points an outing and
Mason Rodby (6-7, Jr., Redmond, Ore.) puts up 8.8 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. His .593 field goal percentage is third best in the conference.
Shanan Rosenberg is in his third season on the Wildcat bench after an impressive 11-year run as the head coach at Foothill College, where he was 186-131.
Pioneer Pages: Lewis & Clark has won two of its last three games, which snapped a five-game losing skid—that began with an 80-77 triple overtime loss to Pacific in Forest Grove in January. The Pioneers had won 17 straight against the Boxers before the hex was broken that night.
Cannen Roberson leads the Pios at 15.2 points a game (fourth in the NWC) and he also adds 5.1. rebounds a contest. Roberson (6-5, Jr., Stanwood, Wash.) is also first in the conference in three-point percentage (.452).
Jason Luhnow (6-2, Sr., Lake Oswego), a Second Team All-NWC pick last year, contributes 14.4 points and 6.0 boards a game.
Markel Leonard (6-0, Jr., Richmond, Calif.) adds 9.7 points an outing. Head coach
Dinari Foreman is in his fifth season as the leader for the Pioneers but also spent over a decade as an assistant at L&C. Additionally, Foreman is a former NAIA All-American on the court for the Pioneers, averaging 25.7 ppg in 1994-95, second best in the nation. He is a member of the Lewis & Clark Athletic Hall of Fame. Last year, the Pioneers reached the NWC tournament final, falling to Whitworth.
Chairmen of the Boards: Despite not having a player over 6'6", the Boxers have controlled the backboards this season. On the year they have a +10.5 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 6.3 boards a contest.
Stat sheet: In the Northwest Conference,
Skyler Burgess is fifth in field goal accuracy (.576), third in rebounds per game (8.0) and second in blocked shots (1.3 a game).
Boxer Balance: Pacific's attack through 23 games shows a balanced stat sheet. Four players average in double figures for the Boxers, and only 3.2 points per game separate the leading scorer from the fourth. Additionally, a fifth player sits at 9.2 ppg.
K.C. Harrison checks in at 13.2 points a game and a team-best 52 assists,
Skyler Burgess is next at 10.5 points per game, a team-best 8.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks a game.
DeVon Pouncey averages 10.2 off the bench,
Michael Joseph adds 9.2 points, 6.3 rebounds a contest and a team-leading 28 steals.
Bobby Ahern returned from injury three weeks ago, after missing eight games and averages 10.0 an outing.
Extra Time: In addition to the triple overtime win over Lewis & Clark, Pacific has also lost a double overtime clash in conference play 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 that went three extra periods.
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.
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.
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.
