WALLA WALLA, Wash.- The Pacific University Men's Basketball team dropped a contest on the road Tuesday night at Whitman College in Walla Walla, 80-59. The contest for the Boxers is the first of four games on the week.
 
Pacific (5-9, 1-4 NWC) was led by Jacob Bolger (Junior/Portland, OR) who had 17 points in 28 minutes. The Boxers struggled from long range only making one shot while taking 19 total shots from deep. The bright spot in the second half came from the free throw line when the visitors converted 11-14 free throws in the half.
 
Whitman (6-8, 4-2 NWC) saw a healthy blend of scoring from Jai Deshpande and Nikola Trifunovic who combined for 51 of the teams 80 points. The Blues had a big second half outscoring the Boxers 61- 38.
 
How It Happened
The Boxers and Blues got off to a very slow start in the first 20 minutes of action. When the teams went to the locker room for the halftime break, the score was 21-19 following an Antoine Stitt (Senior/ San Leandro, CA) long range two-point field goal as time expired. Trevon Ridley (Freshman/ Murrieta, CA) led the Boxers at the half with seven points on 3-4 shooting while corralling seven rebounds.
 
At the intermission, both teams combined to have 28 turnovers while shooting a combined 13-55 (23.6%) from the floor. There were four different lead changes over the first two minutes of the game.
 
The Blues opened the second half going 5-8 to open a 34-28 late going on a 15-7 scoring run before the first media timeout. Bolger however would not let the Blues pull away easily, by scoring 11 points over the first 8:30 of the second half. The Blues would have a response opening up to a lead as big as 24 points on the way to an 80-59 win.
 
By The Numbers

• Lucas Winkler (Freshman/Portland, OR) had a game high 6 steals
• The Boxers had 16 different players register playing time in the contest

 
Up Next
The Boxers will travel north to Spokane for a matchup at Whitworth tomorrow that is a makeup game from a postponement on January 7^th. The tipoff is scheduled for 7 P.M. from inside the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
 
For the latest information on Pacific Athletics, make sure to check out GoBoxers.com. You can also find the Boxers on social media at @GoBoxers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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