PORTLAND, Ore. – For the second season in a row, Lewis & Clark College men's basketball utilized late-game heroics on their home court and outscored Linfield University 11-2 in the final three minutes of play to secure their first Northwest Conference victory on Saturday night in Pamplin Sports Center.
 
THE BASICS
 
Lewis & Clark 80, Linfield 77
(Lewis & Clark 3-4, 1-1 NWC)
(Linfield 2-5, 0-2 NWC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Junior Sam Henderson scored the go-ahead basket, a hook shot in the paint, to put the Pioneers up 78-77 with 21 seconds left in the game and finish with a game-high 18 points.
 
Fellow junior Griffin Datcher IV (4 points, 8 rebounds) forced a Wildcats turnover and recorded a steal by tying up Chase Bennett in a jump ball with eight ticks on the clock, while sophomore Taien Jackson (9 points) hit two free throws after drawing the foul on the inbound to extend the lead to 80-77. Henderson blocked Jackson Dupree's three-point attempt as time expired to secure the win for Lewis & Clark. The Pioneers defeated the Wildcats 70-67 last season at home on a game-winning three by then-junior Nikko Echalas with 0.7 seconds left in the game.
 
Sophomore TJ Muhammad, playing in his second game this season, scored 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field and hitting four of five from the free throw line.
 
Juniors Isaac Ticeson and Nate Berg were the remaining Pioneers to score double digits with 11 points each and finished with six and five rebounds, respectively, to finish second and third behind Datcher IV on the boards.
 
Junior Mikey Medlock Jr. joined Jackson with nine points, and sophomore Kody Uyesugi chipped in five to round out the scoring for Lewis & Clark.
 
The first half of play was a back-and-forth affair, as neither team led by more than four points in the first ten minutes. Berg gave Lewis & Clark their largest lead of 13-9 after hitting the second of two free throws at 11:13 in the first half. Linfield jumped out to their largest lead of the game, 32-24, with 5:32 to go before the break. Uyesugi found Muhammad for three on the ensuing possession and started a 15-5 Pioneers' run. Berg hit his third three of the game at 3:37 to pull Lewis & Clark within 35-33. Jackson tied the game 15 seconds later with a layup, and Datcher IV hit two more layups before halftime to put the Pioneers up 39-35. The Wildcats' Cade Collins hit two of his 18 points with just under a minute to go to pull within 39-37.
 
Henderson made the first basket of the second half to equal the Pioneers' largest lead of the game at 41-37 with 19:03 to play. During the next 14:13 of play, neither team led by more than three points until a three by Bennett put Linfield up 73-69. He would extend that lead to six with free throws at 3:18 left in the game. Nine seconds later, Datcher IV found Henderson in the paint and started the Pioneers' 11-2 game-ending run.   
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Ticeson scored all 11 of his points in the second half after picking up two quick fouls in the game's opening minute.
• Henderson shot 6-for-9 from the field and hit two of three from the stripe to record 14 of his points in the second half.
• Jackson, Medlock Jr., Datcher IV, and Uyesugi all had two assists to lead the Pioneers.
• Lewis & Clark outscored Linfield in the paint (44-36) and from the bench (29-13), while also winning the turnover battle (7-13).
• The game saw 21 lead changes and 11 ties.

WHO'S NEXT
 
The Pioneers' lone game this week is an exhibition meeting with Division I Portland State University of the Big Sky Conference on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Peter W. Stott Center in downtown Portland.