PORTLAND, Ore.—Senior Brenden Patrick tied the Pamplin single-game record for points (43) and Lewis & Clark College men's basketball held off Pacific Lutheran University in a frenetic back-and-forth second half.
THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 95, Pacific Lutheran 92
(Lewis & Clark 13-9, Northwest Conference 7-6)
(Pacific Lutheran 11-11, NWC 5-8)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Patrick scored 29 of his career-high 43 points in the second half to help hold off the Lutes comeback. The two teams combined for 119 points in the second half alone, with PLU scoring 62 points but still falling short in a matchup of two teams fighting to earn a spot in the four-team Northwest Conference Tournament.
Patrick went 14-23 from the field, 2-4 from deep and hit 13 of his 14 free throw attempts. He added six rebound, four assists, three steals and did not turn the ball over in 38 minutes of action.
Fellow senior Jack Henderson added 14 of his 23 points in the second half. Henderson shot 8-16 from the field, went 4-8 from distance and 3-4 from the charity stripe. He tacked on three rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Junior Jayden Simpson (12 points and four rebounds) and senior Grant Stewart (nine points and five rebounds) were the only other two Pioneers with more than four points in the win.
Sam Noland led five Lutes (all starters) in double-figures. Noland finished with 26 points on 9-14 shooting. Jackson Reisner (21 points), Shane McGaughey-Fick (17 ponts), Sean McCurdy (14 points and 10 rebounds) and Brandin Riedel(10 points) all joined Noland in double-figures. The Lutes five starters combined for 88 of their 92 points.
The first half of Friday night's game seemed tame in comparison to the high-octane final 20 minutes. After falling behind by a single possession on three separate occasions, Lewis & Clark built a double-digit lead (34-24) with 3:55 to go in the half. A Patrick 3-pointer capped off an 18-6 run that saw the Pioneers hit three of their 3-pointers on the night. Pacific Lutheran would cut the deficit to six with 2:03 left in the half but Patrick would hit a jumper with three seconds left in the stanza to give the Pios a 38-30 cushion at the break.
The second half was played at a different level with the Pioneers faithful making their voices heard. Pacific Lutheran seemingly couldn't miss, as they shot 69 percent (20-29) from the field, 8-8 from deep and went 14-16 from the free throw line. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't keep the Pioneers off the free throw line (20-21) and Lewis & Clark was red-hot as well, with the Pios finishing the half shooting 53.1 percent (17-32). Lewis & Clark and Pacific Lutheran combined for 10 lead changes and five ties in the half.
Pacific Lutheran only needed 3:12 to tie the game for the first time in the half, as they opened the second half on a 14-6 run. The Pios would retake the lead for the next few minutes before PLU took their first lead since it was 18-16 on a McCurdy three with 12:33 left (53-51).
From there neither team would lead by more than four points for the next 10+ minutes of game time. Lewis & Clark would finally grab a six-point lead with 2:47 left. After McCurdy gave PLU a 74-73 lead with a jumper, Henderson responded with a 3-pointer and Patrick hit a jumper and than a fadeway jumper in which he was fouled to make it 81-75 with 2:47 left.
The visitors responded with a three out of the timeout to cut it to three but Lewis & Clark had a response of their own. Stewart threw an over-the-shoulder, no-look pass to a cutting Taien Jackson for a layup to make it 83-78 and Lewis & Clark hit all 10 of their free throws to ice the game.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Patrick tied Ed Nichenko's record for the most points in a single-game at Pamplin Gymnasium. Nichenko scored 43 points against Linfield University on February 4, 1977.
- With the win, Lewis & Clark moves into sole possession of fourth-place in the NWC Standings with three games to play. The Pios (7-6) are a game ahead of Linfield (6-7) and George Fox University (6-7) and won the first meeting over both teams.
- Patrick's 43 points are the most points by an NWC player this season and tied for the 11th-most by a Division III player this season.
- Lewis & Clark tied their season-high with 25 made free throws and posted their third-best free throw percentage (86.2) of the season.
- Patrick went 8-11 from the field and 13-14 from the free throw line in the second half. He also posted three of the team's five assists in the half.
- Lewis & Clark earns the season-sweep over Pacific Lutheran for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
- The Pioneers 13 wins are their most since the 2014-15 season (16-10).
WHO'S NEXT
Lewis & Clark will look for a huge weekend sweep, when they travel to take on Linfield on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Pioneers defeated the Wildcats on a Nikko Echalas three with under a second to go in the first matchup.