Men's Basketball: Northwest 76, George Fox 64

Bruins fall as Eagles soar to 7th straight win.

Salem-News.com Sports

NEWBERG, Ore. - A 14-2 run to close out the first half enabled the visiting Northwest University Eagles to break open a close game and go on to their seventh straight win, 76-64 over the George Fox University Bruins, who had their own three-game win streak snapped, in a non-conference men’s basketball game Saturday night here at the Wheeler Sports Center’s Miller Gym.

Jack Martin gave the Bruins an early 3-0 lead with a three-point field goal, but after Eddie Coulson put the Eagles ahead 6-5 with a trey of his own at the 17:32 mark of the first half, the visitors never trailed again. Joe Ahn’s three lifted the Bruins to a 14-14 tie with 11 minutes left, but the Eagles got a pair of threes from Blake Solomon and another from Greg Spurgetis in an 11-2 run to take a nine-point lead of 25-16 with eight minutes to go.

Evan Atwater rallied the Bruins with back-to-back threes, cutting the deficit to 25-22, and the Bruins were still within three at 27-24 after Ahn made a layup with 6:14 to go in the period. From there on, however, it was all Eagles as Northwest bolted to a 41-26 halftime lead, Solomon capping the 14-2 outburst with another long-range bomb with seven seconds remaining. The Eagles nailed seven treys in the half.

The second half was played to a virtual standstill as the Eagles kept the margin between 10 and 17 points throughout the period. Only once did the Bruins trim the lead to single digits when Alex Stockner canned a three from the left wing to make it 69-60 with 2:54 left, but the Eagles scored the next six points to squash any flickering hopes the Bruins might have had of a dramatic comeback.

Stockner and Steve Campbell, who drained 5-6 from the floor, led the Bruins with 12 points apiece. Bruin guards Martin, Atwater, and Ahn had nine points each, but Martin and Atwater struggled with their shots all night, combining to go 6-28. Ahn was good on 4-6 from the field. Stockner had nine rebounds, and Ahn passed out three assists. The Bruins managed only a .354 shooting percentage (23-65), .226 on threes (7-31), and .550 (11-20) from the charity stripe.

Coulson led all scorers with 19 points for the Eagles, Solomon added 17, and Greg George tallied 15. Greg Peters had 11 rebounds as Northwest controlled the glass 43-40. Solomon also handed out six assists. The Eagles hit .456 (26-57) from the field with a good .409 mark (9-22) on threes, and hit .652 (15-23) from the line.

George Fox (3-5) is off for 16 days, returning to action Dec. 29th when the Bruins host Corban College at 7:30 PM in their final non-Northwest Conference game of the season. Northwest (8-3) is back home Friday against the No. 1 team in the NAIA Division II, the Oregon Institute of Technology, for a Cascade Collegiate Conference clash at 7:30 PM.

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