FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Stephen Wiseley and Mike Taylor scored 28 points apiece and George Fox University shot .600 (33-55) from the field for the game as the Bruins raced to a 100-87 victory over the Pacific University Boxers in Northwest Conference men's basketball action Friday night here at the Stoller Center.
Pacific took early 2-0 and 5-4 leads on baskets by LeMar Anglin, but the Bruins took the lead for good 6-5 on a layup by Matt Zandbergen, making his first start of the season in place of usual post Rich Smith, who had been ill earlier in the week. The Bruins maintained a lead between one and five points for several minutes until a Wiseley layup made it 24-17 with nine minutes left, and they built a double-digit lead of 27-17 on a thunderous rebound dunk by Taylor and a free throw by Sean Atkins with 7:23 to go.
The Bruins took a 14-point lead of 35-21 with 3:36 to play on a Smith free throw, and led 41-29 at the half after a steal and layup by Atkins with 10 seconds remaining. The Bruins shot .536 (15-28) in the half and were led by Taylor and Wiseley with 11 points apiece. Anglin hit 4-5 from the field en route to nine first-half points that paced the Boxers.
A pair of three-pointers by Wiseley and a jumper by Zandbergen enabled the Bruins to mount an 18-point lead of 49-31 a minute-and-a-half into the second period before the Boxers began a comeback. Over the next nine minutes, the Boxers out-scored the Bruins 27-12, Carson Bartlett's three-pointer from the right wing capping the outburst that cut the George Fox lead to three at 61-58 with 10:14 to go.
Leading only 68-64 after an Anglin layup with 7:34 left, the Bruins scored nine unanswered points on consecutive three-point plays by Atkins and Taylor and a long-range three by Wiseley that made it 77-64 with six minutes left. The Boxers fought back with threes by Bartlett and Andrew Beatty and a layup by Charles Mosley that cut the margin to 85-78 with 3:15 to play, but Wiseley nailed another three to get it back to 10 at 88-78 at the 2:57 mark. George Fox hit 12-14 free throws the rest of the way to seal the win.
The Bruins hit 18-27 for a .667 shooting percentage in the second half, connected on 7-15 (.467) from three-point range in the game, and were 27-35 (.771) from the line. The Boxers shot .528 (19-36) in the second half to get back in the game and finished with a .431 mark (31-72), including 7-25 (.280) from long distance, and were 18-28 (.643) from the stripe.
Wiseley was 7-10 from the floor, including 6-8 on threes, and 8-10 from the line while passing out four assists for his big night, which was one point short of his career high. Taylor, who had a triple-double two games ago against Willamette University, posted his second double-double of the season with a game-high 10 rebounds to go with his points total, which was two off his career high. Cole Whitehurst added 18 points, including 10-10 from the line, while Atkins and Zandbergen had a career highs with 10 and nine points respectively.
Bartlett led the Boxers with 24 points, Anglin had 23 on 10-13 from the field, and Colin Wester added 15. Mosley had a team-leading eight rebounds off the bench.
NEXT: George Fox (6-14, NWC 4-7) hosts Lewis & Clark College and Pacific (3-17, NWC 2-9) visits Willamette Saturday, both games at 8:00 p.m. Each game will be preceded by NWC women's games at 6:00 p.m.