Whitman Men's Basketball Beats Pacific, January 5, 2013

Forest Grove, OR – The Whitman Men's basketball team bounced back from a tough loss the night before at Lewis & Clark to beat Pacific University tonight in Forest Grove, 76 – 65. The victory puts the Missionaries at 3 – 1 in conference, a half-game behind second place George Fox, and 9 – 4 overall. The loss drops Pacific to 0 – 2 in the NWC and 6 – 5 on the season.

Junior forward Ryan Gilkey (Woodinville, WA) came off the bench to lead Whitman in scoring with a season-high 18, hitting 6-of-8 from the field and all 6 of his free throw attempts; the 6 - 9 Gilkey also grabbed 6 rebounds.  Junior point-guard Josh Duckworh (Los Angeles, CA) added 13 and Matt Mounier (So, Encino, CA) and Peter Clark (Sr, Flagstaff, AZ) both had 9 points for the Missionaries. The Boxers were led by Danny Brakebush who poured in 23, with Andrew Beatty tossing in 11.

Ben Eisenhardt (Jr, Bainbridge, WA) topped Whitman in rebounding with 8 -- seven on the defensive end. The Boxers' Dustin Bowser led all rebounders with 9 as Pacific won the rebounding battle 47 to 30.

The Missionaries started fast after the opening tip, taking a 7 – 0 lead on a Gilkey layup with just three minutes off the clock. The Boxers got on the board with a Mitch Wettig layup moments later but Whitman continued to extend its lead, which it would never surrender the entire game. A Mounier layup with 8:32 left in the half gave the Missionaries their biggest lead, to that point, at 14. The Boxers cut it back to 11 before Whitman went on another run before half, outscoring the Boxers 15 to 4 over a six-minute span to take a 20-point advantage, 41 – 21 on two Gilkey free throws.

The teams entered the intermission with the Missionaries up 41 – 25.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, Whitman maintained its comfortable lead but then Pacific made its run and cut the margin to seven, 60 – 53, on a Bowser layup with 8:23 remaining. Drew Raher (Sr, San Francisco, CA) hit a free throw but Brakebush answered with a jumper to cut the margin to 6. Eisenhardt  then hit a free throw and Peter Clark drilled a three-pointer to get the lead back to ten at 65 – 55.

Pacific closed to within five one more time when Dustin Bowser converted a deuce at the 1:10 mark, but Mounier, Gilkey and Duckworth each hit a pair of free throws to seal the victory.

The Missionaries continue their road tour of the NWC Tuesday night when they tip it off against Whitworth at 8 pm.