It is the kind of trend Justin Lunt prefers.
His Puget Sound men’s basketball team is not only playing its sharpest late in the regular season, but a sustainable identity has emerged – and carried the Loggers to the brink of the playoffs.
This one Friday night was big – for many reasons. UPS said goodbye in front of the home crowd to its seniors. And the Loggers needed to square away an earlier debacle against George Fox – and did so convincingly with an 85-72 victory over the Bruins at Memorial Fieldhouse.
UPS (18-5, 10-4 in NWC) remains a half-game ahead of Whitman (16-6, 9-4) for second place in the Northwest Conference, and holds the tiebreaker edge over the Missionaries. George Fox (11-11, 8-5) is in sole possession of fourth, which is the final conference playoff spot.
Dictating the outcome Friday was the Loggers’ pressure defense, which not only handled Pacific Lutheran on Tuesday (66-52 win), it did the same thing to the Bruins, who with 81/2 minutes to go in the first half had more turnovers (11) than points (eight).
“That has been what is working for us ever since the second half of the (86-80) loss to them (Jan. 14),” Loggers forward Kaleb Shelton-Johnson. “We just tried to keep doing that tonight and make them handle it, and I don’t think they came out very strong for how high the stakes were.”
Everyone picked up George Fox ball-handlers at midcourt – including 6-foot-9 Anthony Gittens and 6-7 Riggs Yarbro. The Bruins never seemed to get comfortable – especially stars Anthony Sanchez and Mike Taylor, who committed four of George Fox’s five consecutive turnovers midway through the first half.
Shelton-Johnson led UPS with 20 points on 7-for-7 shooting. Gittens added 16. Yarbro chipped in with 14.
WOMEN
George Fox 77, at UPS 56: The third-ranked Bruins (22-0, 13-0 in NWC) are closing in on another perfect season.
They had no problems Friday night in taking down the Loggers (12-11, 8-6).
“They are good. They know what it takes to play good down the stretch, and we are still learning. We are building that. Two years, three years, we are going to be that team,” UPS coach Loree Payne said.
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 todd.milles@thenewstribune.com
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