Box Score

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- After leading for most of the second half, the Whitman men's basketball team saw victory slip away on an 18-foot jumper by Royce Muskeyvalley with 6 seconds left on the clock as the University of Chicago went onto win 81-79 in a first round game of the 30th Annual Lopata Classic.
 
The loss drops the Missionaries to 0-2 in the early season. The Maroons improve to 2-1.
 
In the early going, it looked as if the Maroons might rout Whitman as they jumped out to a 12-0 lead. But the Missionaries chipped away and finally tied the game at 23 apiece on a layup by Tochi Oti who came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points.
 
Whitman took its first lead of the game with just over 6 minutes remaining in the half on a three-pointer by Keenan Durham that made the score Whitman 28 Chicago 27. The Missionaries were able to push the advantage to five going into intermission after a layup by Josh Duckworth.
 
In the second half, the Maroons kept cutting into the Whitman lead, sometimes tying the score, only to see the Missionaries extend their advantage back out to five points on three different occasions. Whitman held a five point advantage with 5:33 to go, 72-67, after Dominic Lippi drained two foul shots. Then, Charlie Hughes converted a driving layup for the Maroons before nailing a three-pointer to tie the game up.
 
The Missionaries reclaimed the lead at 76-74 on two foul shots by Evan Martin and then again at 78-77 on a pair of free throws from Duckworth. After Nate Brooks converted two from the charity stripe to give the Maroons at one point lead, Duckworth sank one of two from the line to tie things up at 79-all. Chicago then took a timeout and set up the play for Muskeyvalley with 17 ticks left on the clock.
 
After Muskeyvalley hit the fall away jumper, the Missionaries hurried the ball up to half-court and called time with just over 2 seconds left. The inbounds pass by Clay Callahan was deflected into the backcourt where Callahan scooped it up and launched a half-court shot that hit the back of the rim.
 
Duckworth led Whitman with 15 points. Martin added 11.
 
Muskeyvalley was the top man for the Maroons with 18. Hughes had 16, with Brooks and Wayne Simon adding 14.
 
The Missionaries shot 38 % from the field while Chicago hit 59 % of their shots. The Whitman defense, though, caused 28 Maroon turnovers, twice as many at the Whits.
 
The Missionaries face No. 11 Washington University tomorrow night at 6 pm (PST).  The game can be viewed by clicking on this link http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wustl.portal#.
 
Contact:
Andrew Holt
Whitman Sports Information Director
holtac@whitman.edu
509.527.5902