EUGENE, Ore. – In December of last year, Northwest Christian University and Cascade College opened up conference play with an 88-80 victory for the Beacons, decided in overtime. Saturday proved to be another intensely fought contest the NCU was again able to pull it out, 75-74. Andrew Miller hit a pair of free throws with 1.5 seconds remaining to put the Beacons ahead by four points, saving the victory after a buzzer-beating three-point launch from Cascade's Jared Mace went in.

The teams were scraping and clawing their way through the first half, playing through seven ties and 12 lead changes as neither team could ever grab more than a three-point lead. Two free-throws from Josh Brown with 13 seconds remaining tied the game at 32-32 where it stood going into halftime.

Head Coach Dave Lipp said, “We seemed to be extremely tired after last night's game and we didn't quite get our legs under us in the first half. We woke up in the second half and we were able to make the big plays in the last ten minutes and I'm glad that this time we were able to come out on top.”

Cascade came out of the intermission and quickly took the games first four-point lead on back-to-back jumpers from Jason McCall and Erving Adams. The Beacons soon answered with a 10-2 run and grabbed their own four-point lead, 42-38 with just over 13 minutes to play. NCU spread their advantage to as many as seven points and were ahead 69-63 with two minutes to go.

The Thunderbirds got back-to-back buckets from Adams and Ben Pawlak and climbed back to within two points, 69-67 with just under a minute to play. On the following possession, Northwest Christian used most of their shot clock to set up a perfect three-point shot from Erik Quick-Warner to give NCU a five-point edge.

Kao Saelee quickly drove the lane and scored a layup to bring Cascade back to within three, 72-69 with 22 seconds to play. Dylan Perry was then sent to the line after a quick foul but he missed both ends of the double-bonus, giving the ball back to the T-Birds. It was Saelee once again who drove and scored another layup, and the five-point lead had diminished to just one, 72-71 with 11 seconds left.

The Thunderbirds fouled quickly again, and this time Garrett Crinklaw went to the line. The senior Guard was only able to connect on one of two attempts, giving Cascade one final attempt to score. The T-Birds then had a pair of three-point attempts fail in the final ten seconds and with 1.5 ticks remaining, Miller secured a rebound and was fouled, setting up the final free-throws to ice the victory.

Northwest Christian (13-10, 7-7 CCC) was led by Miller and Perry, both finishing the night with 17 points. Perry added a team-high nine rebounds. Quick-Warner added 13 points and three steals and Crinklaw also scored 13 points in just 16 minutes on the floor, shooting 6-for-8 from the field.

“Garrett came in and made a great contribution for us tonight,” said Coach Lipp. “He hit the shots that we needed, got some key rebounds and provided a much needed spark off the bench.”

Crinklaw added, “I got the opportunity tonight and as able to capitalize on it. The press defense that Cascade was running allowed everything back behind it to be open and I was just able to take advantage of that.”

Cascade (11-11, 4-10 CCC) was led by McCall who came off the bench to score 17, shooting 8-for-12 from the field. Adams added 15 and ten rebounds and Pawlak added ten. Mace, who had hit that last-second 50-footer, finished with nine points, ten rebounds and three assists.

Northwest Christian will be back in action next weekend as they welcome Northwest University and Evergreen State College into the Morse Event Center. Both Friday and Saturday action will begin at 7:30 pm.