High Scoring Battle Goes to Warner Pacific
Portland, Ore. – A large crowd of fans were treated to a peach of basketball game at Bart Valentine Court tonight, with Warner Pacific outgunning Northwest Christian 112-106.
Collin Malcolm put the bow tie on a standout weekend for Warner Pacific (13-4, 8-1 CCC), pouring in 30 points and grabbing eight rebounds to push the Knights to the win. He was nearly matched by Michael Loomis of the visiting Beacons (6-8, 2-5 CCC), who dropped in 26 points of his own to keep NCU close.
WP scored the first basket of the game and never trailed, but the outcome was never certain.
Xavier Cannefax hit a jumper at the 12:21 mark to give the Knights a 26-14 lead and put his team firmly in control. The lead proved to be fragile however, as NCU fought back to tie the game at 37-37 with 4:43 left in the first half. Warner Pacific managed to edge back in front and took a seven point advantage in the locker room.
The early action in the second half belonged to WP also, and the home team stretched the lead out to as many as 15 points on a three-point play from Malcolm with 10:45 on the clock. Later in the period the Knights appeared to have the game firmly in hand after
Keaton Bankofier drained a trey to make the score 94-79 with 4:52 remaining. Once again, the Beacons made a run behind 11 points from Austin Tyner, and closed the gap three points (109-106) with 13 seconds to go. A pair of free throws from
Josh Thomas gave WP some breathing room and the Knights survived the strong challenge from the visitors.
In addition to Malcolm's big night, four other Knights reached double figure scoring including Cannefax (18 points), Bankofier (11 points),
De'Jon Bowman (10 points), and a resurgent
Josh Thomas who provided 16 points off the bench. Bowman corralled a game high 14 rebounds.
Loomis ranged inside and out for his 26 points for NCU, and the forward added nine rebounds to his stat line. Austin Tyner and Spencer Mattox added 17 points each in the loss.