Bruins Hold Off Beacons, 73-68

Chris Parker led George Fox with 21 points.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

EUGENE - Northwest Christian College is in a must-win situation for the duration of the regular season after falling to George Fox University on Monday night, 73-68.

The Beacons now have to win all four of their final games in order to secure a spot in the USCAA National Championship Tournament.

In what was one of the closest any most fiercely contested games of the season, George Fox University was able to ice the victory at the charity stripe, making good on 19-of-21 free throw attempts for an overwhelming 90.5%.

This included a combined 10-for-10 over the final six minutes of the game, helping the Bruins fight off any last comeback attempts by the Bruins.

The teams were tied just three times over 40 minutes, but had the lead change hands on 13 occasions.

A two-point Bruin lead at the intermission quickly turned at the beginning of the second half on an Erik Quick-Warner three-pointer and the teams rode the see-saw through five more lead changes until Andrew Martin hit a jumper at the 11-minute mark, putting GFU ahead 49-47.

George Fox built their advantage to six points and held a 55-49 edge with 8:20 to go.

The Beacons refused to go away, however, and went on a 9-2 run to take a brief lead when Josh Jarrett scored on a jumper with 5:04 to play.

Within ten seconds the Bruins took the lead for good and despite climbing to within one point on two more trips down the court, Northwest Christian couldn’t hit a game-tying three-pointer in the waning moments as George Fox held on.

The Beacons (10-11) were led by Jarrett, scoring a game-high 16 points.

Returning to the starting lineup, senior Point Guard Jordan Humphreys chipped in 14 points and a team-high 4 assists.

Justin Jarrett was perfect from the field and scored nine points off the bench as the Beacon reserves out-scored their Bruin counterparts, 21-17.

Andrew Williams scored eight points in the loosing effort, adding a game-high ten rebounds.

George Fox (11-8) had 21 points from Chris Parker, who hit 13-for-15 from the free-throw line, adding seven rebounds.

Matt Metzler scored a career-high 19 points, hitting a trio of three-pointers and Brent Satern had a strong night with ten points, eight assists and six steals.

Northwest Christian will begin their quest for four-straight wins on Saturday night when they travel to face Walla Walla (3-7) in Spokane.

Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 PM.

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