PORTLAND --- The George Fox men's basketball team wrapped up the first half of Northwest Conference action with a 78-72 road win in Portland against the Pioneers of Lewis & Clark on Saturday, Jan. 25.

Recap

The Bruins won the opening tip and scored the first bucket of the night after two empty possessions on a layup from JD Ahlstrom. A pair of foul shots for Ahlstrom coupled with a trey from Jackson Januik gave the Bruins an early 7-2 lead, but the Pios stormed back into the fight to take a 9-7 lead with four minutes gone in the opening half.

The Bruins were able to pull away to a 21-15 lead midway through the first half after getting some good production from a bench unit led by Emilio Mancol, Matthew Dirckx, and Zach Sly. The Pios closed the gap again, however, in the closing minutes of the first half to trail Fox by a score of 41-39 at the break.

The Pios came out of the locker room and ripped off a quick 8-0 run to take a six-point lead, but baskets from Januik, Mancol, and Sly leveled the score at 49-49 with 14 minutes left in regulation.

The Bruins claimed the lead for good from that point on and were able to hold off the Pios' rally attempts through the final buzzer for the win after getting the stops they needed on defense in the six-point victory.

Top Performers

Sly led the Bruins as a spark plug off the bench with 18 points, while Ahlstrom came down with a team-high five rebounds. Januik ended up leading the team with three dimes on the night.

As a team, the Bruins' bench put up 40 of its 78 points and slashed through the Pio defense all evening, scoring 66 of 78 points in the paint during the tilt.

What It Means

George Fox moves to 3-5 in NWC play and is now 7-10 on the season after making its way through the first half of the 2019-20 NWC slate.

What Happens Next

The Bruins start the second half of NWC play with a home matchup against Linfield on Friday, Jan. 31, at 8:00 pm in Newberg.