Feb. 9, 2007

Oliver’s Shot at Buzzer Lifts Lutes Past Whitman, 71-70

Game Statistics

Kurt Oliver - only basket wins game

Jared Brandeberry - scores 18 points

TACOMA, Wash. – Kurt Oliver hit a three-point shot at the buzzer to lift Pacific Lutheran to a 71-70 Northwest Conference men’s basketball victory over the visiting Whitman Missionaries in Olson Auditorium on Friday night.

The Whitman coaching staff and players pleaded their case that the ball left Oliver’s hand after the buzzer sounded, but the officials ruled that the shot counted, giving PLU the hard-earned victory. Ironically, the three points were Oliver's only tallies in the game.

The Lutes, who improved to 8-12 overall and 5-8 in the conference, seemed to be in control with 10 minutes remaining when Scott McDaniels fed Josh Vanlandingham for a layup, giving the Lutes a 52-42 advantage. PLU still held a 60-51 lead with 7:08 when Chris Faidley led a Whitman comeback by hitting back-to-back three-point field goals to cut the Lutes’ lead to three points.

After PLU regained a 66-60 lead, Faidley drained another three-pointer to make the score 66-63 with 2:03 remaining, and Kyle Born hit yet another three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining to knot the score at 68-68.

The Lutes turned the ball over with 40 seconds remaining, giving Whitman the opportunity to take the lead, which it did on Born’s follow shot with 7.8 seconds remaining. That left the Lutes enough time to get the ball down the floor, but the ball was knocked away and rolled to Oliver, who drained the winning shot and was then mobbed by his teammates.

Jared Brandeberry scored all 18 of his points for the Lutes from three-point range, shooting 6-of-7 from beyond the arc, and he contributed five assists. McDaniels added 18 points and seven rebounds for the Lutes, who also got 16 points and seven rebounds from Josh Dressler and seven points and six assists from Landon Heidenreich.

For the second time in as many meetings between the teams this season, Born had a big game for the Missionaries with game highs of 26 points and 12 rebounds. In the earlier meeting in Walla Walla on Jan. 12, he finished with 27 points and 23 rebounds. Born hit 12-of-19 shots from the field and also added three assists to his total. Faidley hit six of his seven three-point shots in the second half and finished the game with 22 points, while Aaron Hazel hit all five of his shots to finish with 10 points.

With the loss, Whitman falls to 7-15 overall and to 3-10 in the conference.

Both teams play Northwest Conference games on Saturday, the Lutes hosting Whitworth and Whitman traveling across town to play Puget Sound.

- PLU -