Box Score

FOREST GROVE – Danny Brakebush (So., Portland, Ore.) picked up as if he had never left Saturday, leading the Boxers in scoring in his first game back in over a year as Pacific fell to La Verne, 54-43, in men's basketball action at the Stoller Center.
 
Brakebush, who missed all of the 2013-14 season with a knee injury, finished with a game-high 17 points to go along with nine rebounds and three steals in 21 minutes of action.  He did most of his damage from the free throw line, connecting on 10 of 11 as the Boxers shot 77.8 percent from the stripe on the night.
 
The scoring performance was the bright spot for a Pacific squad that looked offensively flat much of the night.  The Boxers finished shooting 21.3 percent from the field (10-47) and 2 of 20 from three-point range.  Marc Eppinger (Jr., Camas, Wash.) scored eight points to go along with 10 rebounds.
 
Hakim Arnold led La Verne with 14 points on 4 of 7 from the field and 6 of 8 from the free throw line.  Kendall McClain came off of the bench to score 12 points and Karl Reyes added 11 points.  The Leopards finished the night shooting 38 percent from the field (19-50), 5 of 14 from three-point range and 11 of 23 from the charity stripe.  La Verne out-rebounded Pacific 42-37, led by 10 from Josiah Sukumaran.
 
La Verne improved to 2-0 win the victory while the Boxers dropped to 0-2.
 
The teams combined to miss their first five shots of the game before Niall Harrison scored the game's first points at the 17:35 mark. The Leopards pulled out to a 7-1 lead on McClain's three-pointer with 14:45 to go and Brakebush pulled the Boxers back to within three on his trey on his first shot of the game. 
 
Pacific was within four points, 11-7, with 6:12 to go before the Weston Newell's lay-in with 5:07 left sparked a 11-1 run over a two-minute stretch.  McClain had seven of the points and Newell closed it out with his lay-in at the 3:36 mark to build a 22-8 La Verne lead.  Pacific closed out the period to a 10-2 run of their own, with all 10 points coming on free throws as the Boxers pulled to within six at the half, 24-18.
 
Pacific did not hit a field goal in the final nine minutes of the first half and the drought continued until Coby Proctor (Sr., Sublimity, Ore.) connected on a lay-in at the 15:48 mark of the second half that brought Pacific to within two, 26-24.  The Leopards responded by hitting their next three shots, with Reyes' three-point putting the visitors back up 33-24.  La Verne eventually extended their lead back to 12 points, 39-27, on Harrison's lay-in with 9:11 to go.
 
The La Verne lead was 41-29 when a free throw by Mitch Wettig (Sr., Bend, Ore.) started a 10-3 run over the next six minutes with Brakebush's jumper with 2:48 left pulling the Boxers within 43-39. 
 
Two possessions later, Pacific appeared to have succeeded in drawing a 10-second backcourt violation against the Leopards, but the officials ruled that the coaching staff had called a timeout before the 10 seconds had been reached.  The Pacific bench argued, was assessed with a technical foul and Arnold's two made free throws killed the momentum.  La Verne closed the game on an 11-4 run.
 
Pacific will close out the weekend and a three-game season-opening home stand on Sunday, hosting Caltech at 1 p.m.  A live video webcast of the game is available at GoBoxers.com.  La Verne will take the Thanksgiving week off, returning to action on Dec. 5 at the Lopata Classic at Washington University in St. Louis.