Junior Erik Quick-Warner led the Beacons with 19 points, hitting 12-for-14 at the free-throw line.
Box Score
EUGENE, Ore. – After opening the season with ten games on the road, the Northwest Christian University men’s basketball team gave themselves a warm welcome in their home opener on Saturday night, defeating the Pacific University Boxers, 69-62.
As has become custom, the Beacons were involved in a close game all night as the teams traded leads 22 times and were tied at eight separate intervals before NCU emerged victorious. In the first half both teams held leads of no more than four points on a number of occasions. A Dylan Perry layup with under 20 seconds to play gave NCU a 29-28 advantage heading into the break.
The Boxers came out inspired in the second half, hitting of 6-of-8 field goal attempts early on as they established a 43-39 advantage with 15 minutes to go. They would stretch the lead to as many as six points, and held a 59-53 edge after an A.J. Gaulton jumper with just eight minutes remaining.
The Beacons would soon turn the tide with a 9-0 run, fueled by seven made free-throws on eight attempts. NCU would maintain a 63-61 lead and with just under two minutes to play Pacific had a chance to tie the game. Ross Bartlett was at the line, but hit just one of two free throw attempts, making it a one-point basket. After a series of turnovers, the Boxers once again had the ball as Jordan Carter pulled in a steal. Carter was promptly called for an over-and-back turnover at mid-court, giving the ball back to the Beacons. Northwest Christian went a perfect 6-for-6 at the charity stripe over that final minute to ice the victory.
“We came out and got some important rebounds,” said Head Coach Dave Lipp, “and we forced them into a number of bad shots in those last five minutes.”
The Beacons improve to 7-4 on the season and have now played seven games in which neither team held more than a two-point lead with under a minute to play. Coach Lipp said, “These close games are really helping us to be prepared going forward. We will face a tough game like this every night in the Cascade Conference.”
Junior Point-Guard Erik Quick-Warner, who led the Beacons with 19 points said, “close games are making us more clutch. We know how to win close games, which we didn’t really have the ability to do last season.”
Quick-Warner was 12-for-14 at the free-throw line for the Beacons, leading a team effort that saw NCU shoot 83% on freebies. “Erik is giving us strong leadership right now,” said Lipp. “He keeps us together on offense and defense and is really able to act like our coach on the floor.”
Quick-Warner added, “The coaching staff has really asked us to take more of a leadership role this year and the best way to be leaders is to lead by example. Hopefully I was able to do that tonight.”
Perry also put in a solid evening for NCU, coming off the bench to shoot 5-for-9 with 15 points, five rebounds and a game-high three steals. Cameron Marshall added eleven points and Andrew Miller chipped in five along with seven rebounds and four assists, both team highs.
The Boxers (4-3) were led by Garold Howe, scoring 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting before fouling out. Bartlett added 15 points along with a game-high eight rebounds. The Pacific bench was outscored 26-3 as the NCU reserves showed their depth en route to the victory.
The Beacons will be back in action next weekend as they play host to Concordia University on Friday and Corban College on Saturday in a pair of CCC games. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm for both contests.