Box Score

FOREST GROVE – It all came down to free throws between Pacific and Pacific Lutheran Saturday night and the Boxers connected when they needed them, making 9 of 13 in the final minute to down the Lutes 72-67 in Northwest Conference men's basketball action at the Stoller Center.
 
The Boxers owned a 16-point lead with 13:24 left in the game, but watched the Lutes roar back to take a short-lived 55-54 lead with 3:54 to go.  Pacific took the lead back on their next possession and would build as much as a six-point lead with 50 seconds to go, but would have to fend off the Lutes as they came within one with 17 seconds before the Boxers closed the game with four straight makes at the charity stripe.
 
Riley Grandinetti (Sr., Murray, Utah) led Pacific with 17 points, making 6 of 9 from the field and 5 of 7 from three-point range, including a key three-pointer with 1:12 left that firmly moved the momentum in Pacific's direction.  Coby Proctor (Sr., Sublimity, Ore.) added 14 points while Mitch Wettig (Sr., Bend, Ore.) and Michael Garcia (Fr., Forest Grove, Ore.) each scored nine. 
 
The Boxers finished the night shooting 47.9 percent from the field (23-48) and 39.3 percent from three-point range (11-28), but came alive in the second half to shoot 60 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Brandon Lester led Pacific Lutheran with 24 points, connecting on 9 of 14 from the field and 4 of 7 from three-point range.  Shane Jacob added 18 points.  The Lutes finished the night shooting 50.9 percent from the field (27-53) and 47.1 percent from three-point range (8-17).
 
With the win, Pacific improved to 10-9, 5-5 NWC, and moved into sole possession of fourth place in the NWC standings.  Pacific Lutheran dropped to 5-13, 3-6 NWC.
 
The Lutes opened the contest with the hot hand, taking a 9-0 lead just over three minutes in on Jacob's jumper.  Pacific responded with a 9-0 run of their own over the next three minutes, tying it at 9-9 on Burgess' lay-in at the 13:02 mark.  The score was tied again at 12-12 when the Boxers went on another 8-2 spurt, culminating on Garcia's second three-pointer of the game, to go up 18-12 midway through the stanza.
 
PLU reduced the Pacific lead to four before another five-point run, paced by a Proctor three-pointer and a pair of Wettig free throws gave the Boxers a 23-14 lead with 6:23 to go.  The Lutes came back within four on Bryce Miller's jump with 4:19 left, but Grandinetti's three-pointer brought the lead back to eight, which held as the Boxers went into the locker room with a 33-25 lead.
 
Pacific built their largest lead of the game, 48-32, on Proctor's jumper at the 13:24 mark of the second half.  PLU went on a 21-4 run over the next 10 minutes and succeeded in taking a 55-54 lead on Dylan Foreman's lay-in with 3:54 to go. 
 
Pacific went right back, 57-55, on Proctor's jumper with 2:33 left and Grandinetti followed with back-to-back three-pointers that put the Boxers ahead 63-57 with 1:12 left.  The Lutes almost immediately started trading fouls for possessions, and the strategy worked as the Lutes were within one, 68-67, on a pair of Lester free throws with 17 seconds left.  After Bobby Ahern (Jr., Madras, Ore.) hit two free throws 14 seconds left, Kevin McCrossin missed a potential game-tying three-pointer and Ahern came up with the rebound.  His two charity shots with four seconds left iced the victory.
 
The Boxers closed a four-game home stand on Friday, hosting Puget Sound at 8 p.m.  A live video webcast of the game will be available at GoBoxers.com.  Pacific Lutheran will host the Loggers on Tuesday night.