Feb. 10, 2007

Final Basket Gives Whitworth 65-63 Win Over Pacific Lutheran

Game Statistics

Jared Brandeberry - leads Lutes with 15 points

Josh Vanlandingham - 13 points off bench

TACOMA, Wash. - One night after defeating Whitman on a buzzer beater, Pacific Lutheran came out on the wrong end of a similar Northwest Conference men's basketball game against the visiting Whitworth Pirates on Saturday night in Olson Auditorium.

Whitworth senior James Jones scored on a reverse layup with 2.1 seconds left to lead the Pirates to a 65-63 victory over the Lutes. With the win, 13th-ranked Whitworth moves into a first-place tie for the Northwest Conference lead with Lewis & Clark, both teams sporting 11-3 records.

The Pirates finish the season next week with a Tuesday night road game against Whitman and a Friday night home contest against Willamette. Lewis & Clark hosts third-place Puget Sound on Friday and travels to George Fox on Saturday.

Whitworth needed all of the 24 points scored by Jones, a left-handed senior out of Manchester, England. He had missed several games earlier this year with a broken right hand, but he seemed unaffected by the injury on Saturday night as he made 10-of-18 shots from the field, including 4-of-9 from three-point range. He also tied for game-high rebounding honors with nine boards.

Jones’ clutch basket followed a similar shot by PLU’s Kurt Oliver. One night earlier, Oliver hit a three-pointer to give the Lutes a 71-70 victory over Whitman. Tonight, with his team trailing 63-60, Oliver hit a three-point basket from the top of the key with 10.3 seconds, tying the game at 63-63.

Whitworth senior point guard Bryan Williams drove to the basket on the other end, but his path was cut off. He bounced a pass to Jones, cutting in from the left, and he went under the hoop and spun the ball off the backboard for the winning points.

The score was close throughout the first half as neither team led by more than three points. The Lutes increased their 28-26 halftime lead to 37-29, their biggest advantage of the game, on a Landon Heidenreich layup with 17:20 left to play. Whitworth responded with an 11-3 run to tie the score, and it eventually built its own eight-point lead, 52-44, on Jon Young’s three-point basket from the right corner with 9:54 to play.

The Pirates retained the lead until the closing seconds when Oliver’s three-point field goal tied the game, but that only set the stage for the winning shot by Jones.

Jared Brandeberry led a balanced PLU scoring attack with 15 points, and he also collected eight rebounds. Scott McDaniels had 11 points and nine rebounds, and Josh Dressler chipped in with 11 points. Josh Vanlandingham came off the bench to score 13 points for PLU, and Heidenreich had a strong floor game with seven assists.

Williams joined Jones in double figures with 10 points. After shooting just 30 percent in the opening half, the Pirates hit 56 percent of their efforts in the closing half and finished with 42 percent accuracy. The Lutes, on the other hand, shot 45 percent for the game. Both teams hit 7-of-19 from three-point range, or 37 percent.

Pacific Lutheran plays Friday at George Fox and Saturday at Pacific to close out its season.

- PLU -