"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities
WALLA WALLA, Wash. - On a night in which they had their best shooting touch of the season, the George Fox University Bruins also had their worst ball-handling touch of the season and turned over a 90-78 win to the Whitman College Missionaries in the Northwest Conference Men's Basketball Tournament semifinals Thursday here at the Sherwood Center.
George Fox, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, saw its season conclude with an overall 15-11 slate. No. 2 seed Whitman, now 19-7, will take on the No. 1 seed Whitworth University Pirates (23-3), a 74-69 winner over the No. 4 seed Lewis & Clark College Pioneers (16-10), Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in Spokane, Wash.
The Bruins were hot shots all game long, hitting 60 per cent or better of their field goal tries in both halves and finishing with a sizzling .615 shooting percentage (32-of-52). Whitman, by contrast, shot only .457 (32-of-70), but therein lay the problem as the Missionaries took 18 more shots than the Bruins. The difference came from Whitman's 10 offensive rebounds plus the Bruins' 24 turnovers, their worst number of the season, to only seven giveaways for the Missionaries.
George Fox held the advantage for most of the game's first six minutes after opening with a layup by Sean Atkins 12 seconds into the game. A three-pointer by Matt Mounier in answer gave Whitman its only early lead as a layup by Seth Brent started an 11-5 stretch by the Bruins, capped by a Brent three, that gave the Bruins their largest lead at 13-8 two-and-a-half minutes in. A layup by the Missionaries' big post player, Ben Eisenhardt, started the home team on its way back, and they regained the lead on a trey by Drew Raher that made it 17-15 with 14:35 left in the half.
The Bruins were within one after a jumper by Spencer Bolte made it 20-19 with 13:13 left, but a 13-2 run featuring three-point bombs by Mounier, Josh Duckworth, and Peter Clark extended the gap to 33-21 at the 10:45 mark, Whitman's largest lead of the half. The Bruins twice closed within two points, the last at 40-38 with 3:52 remaining on a Josh Garlington layup, but the Missionaries finished the half on an 8-2 run, Duckworth's jumper with four seconds left giving Whitman a 48-40 margin at the break.
An 8-1 run to open the second half, completed by an Anthony Sanchez layup, drew the Bruins within one at 49-48, but the Missionaries pulled away again to lead by seven twice, the last at 58-51 on a layup by Keenan Durham with 16:17 to go. The Bruins made another run at the Missionaries over the next four minutes, a traditional three-point play by Atkins ending an 11-4 run and knotting the game 62-62 with 12:35 left.
Whitman took off from that point, out-scoring George Fox 19-6 over a six-minute span to forge a 13-point lead of 81-68 with six minutes to play. The Missionaries maintained a double-digit lead for most of the rest of the game, though the Bruins did get within seven at 85-78 on an Atkins three with 1:50 left. The Missionaries closed out the game by making 5-of-6 from the line in the last minute-and-a-half while the Bruins were missing their last two three-point tries.
Atkins led all scorers with 25 points for the Bruins, hitting 10-of-16 from the floor. Sanchez added 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and Brent scored 14 on 6-of-9 field goals. Atkins had a game-high eight rebounds as the Bruins held a 32-29 edge on the boards, and also made two steals. Sanchez and A.J. Grant each contributed five assists, and Brent blocked three shots.
Duckworth led a quintet of Missionaries in double figures with 17 points, getting help from Mounier and Eisenhardt with 16 apiece, Raher with 11, and Ryan Gilkey with 10. Mounier and Eisenhardt each had six rebounds, Duckworth handed out four assists, and Raher made five steals.