Box Score

NEWBERG, Ore. – Pacific rallied from a 14-point first half deficit to take brief leads early in the second Friday night, but Hardin-Simmons' solid shooting proved enough for the Cowboys to ride away with the 73-66 win over the Boxers in the Bon Appetit/Northwest Conference Tip-Off Classic at the Wheeler Sports Center.
 
The Cowboys (1-0) shot 55 percent from the field in first half to build as much as a 14-point lead midway through the period.  Pacific (0-1) rallied to within six points at halftime and took a 46-44 lead early in second half and rallied again from a deficit to tie it at 64-64 with 4:46 left.  The Boxers went cold in the final four minutes, going 0 for 4 from the field and were outscored by the Cowboys 9-1.
 
Colin Wester (Sr., Sherwood, Ore.) led all scorers with 19 points, connecting on 7 of 12 from field, including a pair of three-pointers.  Charles Mosley (Sr., Hillsboro, Ore.) added 10 points while Budweiser Hawkins (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.) came off the bench to score nine and pull down a game-high 12 rebounds.  Andrew Beatty (Sr., Lynnwood, Wash.) just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.
 
As a team, Pacific shot 40 percent from the field (24-60) and 6 of 17 from the three-point arc, but went just 12 of 19 from the free throw line.  The boxers outrebounded the Cowboys by a 36-32 margin.
 
Eric Taylor and John Derr each scored 17 points to lead five Hardin-Simmons players in double figures.  George Nelson finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Titus Mims and Darius Singletary each netted 10 points.  The Cowboys finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field (24-48) and 44 percent from three-point range (8-18).
 
Pacific struggled to find its shooting touch early on and quickly found themselves down eight when Taylor converted three free throws at the 16:52 mark.  Wester narrowed the advantage to 16-12 with his three-pointer with 13:27 left in the first half, but the Cowboys responded with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes, paced by five points from Singletary, opening up their biggest lead of the game, 26-12.
 
The Boxers cut Hardin-Simmons' lead back to single digits on Hawkins' trey with 6:30 left.  Cameron Hayes (Jr., Milton, Wash.) hit his only three-pointer of the night on Pacific's next possession, opening a 9-3 run that ended when Danny Brakebush (Fr., Portland, Ore.) netted two free throws to bring the Boxers within 34-33 with 3:20 left in the half.  The Cowboys closed the stanza on an 8-4 run to take a 42-36 halftime lead.
 
Pacific took their first lead of the contest early in the second half when Beatty's jumper at the 16:18 mark made it a 46-44 game.  The two teams scored just one time each over the next three minutes, with Derr's three-pointer with 12:49 left giving the Cowboys a 49-48 advantage.
 
Hardin-Simmons would never trail again, but fought off the Boxers the rest of the way.  Hawkins connected on his second three-pointer of the night to tie the contest at 56-56 at the 9:31 mark, only to watch the Cowboys bolt back out to a five-point advantage on a free throw by Jeff Holland.  Wester's lay-in with 5:20 left forced a 62-62 tie and both teams traded buckets on their next possessions before George Nelson's jumper with 4:06 left started the Cowboys' closing run to win it.
 
Pacific will play its second game of the Bon Appetit/Northwest Conference Tip-Off Classic at home on Saturday, hosting La Verne at 7:30 p.m.  George Fox and UC Santa Cruz will play in the opener at the Stoller Center at 5 p.m.