Box Score



SPOKANE, Wash.—#4 Lewis & Clark College men's basketball outscored #3 Whitman College 32-16 over the final 12:12 in regulation, to win the program's first Northwest Conference Title since 2002. 
 
THE BASICS
 
#4 Lewis & Clark 70, #3 Whitman 57
(Lewis & Clark 15-12) 
(Whitman 13-14) 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
With the victory, Lewis & Clark claims the program's fifth-ever NWC Tournament Title and first since 2002. They advance to play in the NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Tournament for the fourth time in program history. 
 
The Pioneers led for the majority of the game but found themselves trailing 41-38 with 12:12 to play. Senior Sam Henderson responded with five consecutive points to give Lewis & Clark the lead back with 10:51 to play and Lewis & Clark never looked back. The #4 seed used a late 9-0 run to open up a 63-50 lead and held on for the program's fifth NWC Tournament Title. 
 
For the second-straight night, Lewis & Clark relied heavily on the senior trio of Henderson, Isaac Ticeson and Mikey Medlock Jr. 
 
Henderson went off for a game-high 20 points, including 14 in the second half. Ticeson (13) and Medlock Jr. (12) joined Henderson in double-figures. The trio combined for 45 of the team's 70 points and 95 of the team's 141 points in the tournament (67.3 percent). Henderson went an efficient 7-9 from the field and hit his lone 3-point attempt and all five of his free throws. He added three rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench. Ticeson chipped in 13 points on 6-10 shooting and snagged seven rebounds. Medlock Jr. scored 12 points on just 2-4 shooting but went 6-7 from the free throw line. 
 
Junior point guard Taien Jackson joined the trio in double-figures with 10 points on 3-4 shooting. He went 2-2 from deep, including knocking down an extremely deep three with no time left on the shot clock, and tacked on seven boards and two steals. 
 
Senior Nate Berg was hot in the first half before getting into foul trouble. He scored seven of his nine points in the first half and went 4-4 in 23 minutes. First year point guard Jake Rodriguez was the sixth and final player to score in the Title Game. He finished with six points and pulled down eight defensive rebounds to help Lewis & Clark minimize Whitman's second-chance opportunities. 
 
Grant Hunt led four Blues in double-figures with 16 points – as Whitman suffered it's fourth-consecutive NWC Championship loss. 
 
For the second-straight night, both teams struggled to get into an offensive rhythm early on. Whitman used a 5-0 run to grab a 5-3 lead and claimed their final lead of the first half at 7-5 with 15:40 to play. 
 
Ticeson and Berg hit a pair of layups to make it 9-7 Lewis & Clark, before Jacob Fotu would tie it with a lay-in of his own. 
 
Lewis & Clark used back-to-back baskets from Henderson and Ticeson to grab a 13-9 lead they would never relinquish the rest of the half. The Pioneers would extend their lead to 18-11 on a Medlock Jr. 3-pointer, but Whitman countered with a 6-0 run. 
 
Henderson hit a jumper with 1:49 to give Lewis & Clark their largest lead of the half (32-23) but Fotu hit a jumper and Grant hit two free throws with under seconds to play to make it 32-27 at the break. 
 
Unlike the previous night, Lewis & Clark couldn't keep the Blues from coming all the way back. The Blues managed to tie the game at 36-36 with 13:39 remaining. Berg would respond with a layup but Fotu hit a jumper and Ali Efe Isak converted a 3-point play to give Whitman their largest lead of the game at 41-38 with 12:12 left. 
 
Henderson and Ticeson immediately went on a 8-0 run to wrestle control back. Henderson started the flurry with a 3-point play and then hit a jumper to give the Pioneers the lead for good with 10:51 left. After a pair of blocks from Andre Treadwell and Ticeson, Ticeson converted a 3-point play of his own to make it 46-41. 
 
Isaiah Amato temporarily stopped the bleeding with a fast-break layup. Ticeson responded by finding Henderson on the fast break for a dunk and Medlock Jr. hit a 3-pointer in front of the Pioneers bench to extend the lead to eight. Jackson came through with a massive 3-pointer on the next possession. Grant hit the ball out of his hands with under five seconds left on the shot clock and Jackson raced back well beyond the 3-point line, turned and shot a deep 3-pointer to make it 54-45 with 5:54 to play. 
 
Whitman used a mini 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 54-50 with under five minutes to play. 
 
Lewis & Clark put the game away with an 9-0 run that gave them their largest lead of the game (63-50). Henderson started the flurry with a 3-pointer, Ticeson added a layup and Rodriguez rattled in a jumper to make it 61-50. Henderson added two free throws with 1:19 to play to cap off what had turned into a 23-9 run. 
 
The Pioneers hit seven of nine free throws in the final minute to seal the win. 
 
 BY THE NUMBERS

• The Pioneers are the first team not named Whitworth or Whitman to win the NWC Tournament Title since the University of Puget Sound in 2006. 
• Lewis & Clark is just the second four-seed in NWC Tournament history to win the title. Willamette won as a four-seed in 2000, when they defeated #3 Linfield in the Finals. 
• The Pioneers went from worst-to-first. Men's Basketball finished in ninth out of nine teams in the NWC in the 2023-24 season with a 2-14 conference record. They were picked to finish in ninth place in this year's NWC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
• Lewis & Clark shot 57.1 percent (24-42) from the field, 55.6 percent (5-9) from distance and hit 17-19 free throws (89.5 percent). All three marks are amongst the top-four performances for the Pioneers this year. 
• The Pioneers had lost seven-straight games to the Blues prior to their win in Portland on February 8. The last time Lewis & Clark won back-to-back games against Whitman was across the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. 
• Defense has been the Pioneers calling card all season long and they held #1 Whitworth and #3 Whitman to just 60.5 points per game this weekend. 
• Henderson and Medlock Jr. finished the weekend with 37 and 36 points respectively. Both players shot over 60 percent from the field and they combined to go 21-25 from the free throw line. 
• As a team, Lewis & Clark shot 52.2 percent (48-92) and held their opponents to 37.2 percent (45-121). They also knocked down 81.4 percent of their free throws (35-43). 
• Lewis & Clark's five NWC Tournament Titles are the second-most all-time behind Whitworth (14). They are the first team to win the NWC Title from Oregon since they last did it in 2002. The Pioneers are now 14-13 all-time in the NWC Tournament.  

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will learn their NCAA Tournament draw on Monday at 9 a.m. Pacific when the NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Selection Show airs on NCAA.com.