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GFU
doesn't let close
one slip away |
The men's basketball team defeats Warner Pacific
87-82 Tuesday at home |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 The George Fox University men’s basketball team didn’t let a game
slip away in the final minutes Tuesday, as it did last week.
On Nov. 21 the Bruins led 88-83 with 19 seconds remaining before a pair of
3-pointers by Northwest College handed the Bruins a season-opening 89-88 loss. Another
close game Tuesday produced better results for the Bruins as GFU held off Warner Pacific,
87-82.
“I felt like after a tough loss on Friday and that the game was kind of
nip-and-tuck, I was kind of like ‘Oh, no’,” said Mark Sundquist, GFU coach.
“But (Aaron Schmick) is never going to miss two free throws in a row, ever, but he
did that night. (Regardless) we wanted the ball in his hands at the end to knock down the
free throws.”
Sundquist said he was glad the Bruins were able to pull off the win in a close game
reminiscent of the Northwest College contest.
“I think it might have been in the back of their minds,” he said.
“We just wanted to make sure we were really direct in our game plan and we were. It
was a really good win for us.”
GFU outrebounded the Knights 47-29, including a 15-9 edge in offensive
rebounds.
“One of our main goals going into this game was to outrebound them,”
Sundquist said. “That, and try to hold them to under 35 points in each half and we
held them to 35 in the second half. The guys executed the game plan pretty well. Warner is
good and their record isn’t indicative of that, but they’re always well-coached
and it was a good game.”
The Bruins trailed 47-41 at halftime but a Schmick 3-pointer and a long
jumper by sophomore post Scott Szalay trimmed the lead to 47-46. The Bruins received a
huge boost from senior Bryan Wadlow in the second half when he canned three consecutive
3-pointers.
“I thought he gave us a huge lift with those (3-pointers),”
Sundquist said. “I thought that was key.”
Eventually, the Bruins took the lead and stretched it to as many as 12 at
80-68 on Schmick’s two free throws with 5:37 remaining in the game. But Warner
Pacific continued to chip away at the GFU lead in the final minutes as the Knights’
Joe Hoover, who scored a game-high 27 points, canned a 3-pointer with 1:15 left to cut the
GFU lead to 83-80.
After the teams traded buckets, Szalay’s offensive rebound and basket
off a Mark Gayman miss gave the Bruins the 87-82 advantage with 23 seconds left. Szalay
then came up big on the defensive end with a block to thwart the Knights.
Sundquist said the offensive rebound and hoop by Szalay was critical.
“The play we set up was designed so if Mark misses that Scott is
on the opposite side to get it because 70 percent of misses go to the other side,” he
said. “So we set him there and he was at the right place at the right time.”
With the win Sundquist said he feels good but knows his team’s defense
still needs work.
“We are a lot better than we were last year on the defensive end,”
he said. “We can score as well as anybody in the league and I’ve always thought
that, but we just need to stop people. We just need to get better at the defensive end. We
don’t play defense long enough. We rest on defense rather than on offense when it
should be vice versa.”
The Bruins had four players in double figures. Gayman scored 25 points
to go along with 13 rebounds. Schmick added 19 points and Szalay chipped in 15 points and
11 rebounds. Wadlow added 10 points and four assists for the Bruins.
Sundquist said he likes the fact that the scoring was spread out as much as
it was.
“If we can continue that, we’re tough because it’s hard to key
on any one guy on our team,” he said. “When we’re clicking on all
cylinders, we’re pretty good but we just need to play defense.” |
|
From Nov. 29,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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