EUGENE, Ore. – After trailing by 15 points at halftime, the Northwest Christian University men's basketball stormed back to within one point on Friday night, but the #1 ranked team in the NAIA would not be denied as Oregon Tech claimed the 73-69 victory.

NCU turned things around immediately in the second half with five straight points to get within ten, but the Beacons still trailed by eleven, 65-54 with 9:40 to play. Jordan Whittenburg (pictured) proved to be an amazing spark off the bench for NCU being held scoreless in the first half, the senior shooting guard got his first three points on a trey with ten minutes to play and he continued to pour on the intensity from there. His assist on an Andrew Miller layup sparked the Beacons to a 13-3 run, which included three more jumpers from Whittenburg, along with a key steal and a charge taken as NCU climbed within one point, 68-67 with 1:48 remaining.

After a pair of Owl free-throws, the Beacons brought it back to 70-69 on the next possession with a jumper from Erik Quick-Warner, but that would end up as the final points for Northwest Christian on the night. With 55 seconds, OIT's Myles Daley got a big put-back layup off a missed jumper, giving the Owls a three-point edge. NCU proceeded to miss a critical layup on their next possession, setting up the Owls to wind down the clock with just a five-second differential between the game-clock and 35-second shot-clock.

The Beacons got what they wanted with a missed layup by Mike Nieraeth, but Cameron Marshall was tied up trying to grab the rebound and with seven seconds remaining, a jump ball was called, and the possession arrow dictated that the ball remain with Oregon Tech. NCU was forced to foul and Justin Parnell made good on one of two free throw attempts for the final margin of four points.

Head Coach Dave Lipp said after the game that he was proud of his team's resiliency in coming back in the second half, but also noted, “We'll be thinking about a missed free throw here, a turnover there, a missed block out here and the score might have been different. That's what makes it hard. But the truth of the matter is [Oregon Tech] played two halves and we only played one.”

The Owls (17-1, 7-1 CCC) who are the defending NAIA National Champions, were led by Jguwon Hogges who scored 19 points, adding five assists and five steals, all in the first half. Parnell added 12 points and seven boards and 6'10'' Post Christian Cavanaugh came off the bench to add 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting, despite dealing with a stomach virus all evening.

Northwest Christian (9-7, 3-4 CCC) was led by Marshall who finished with 17 points after scoring 14 over the first ten minutes of the game. Miller added eleven points and Dylan Perry came off the bench with ten points and a game-high eight rebounds. Whittenburg finished with nine points, all in the second half, as he shot 4-for-7 from the floor.

After the game Whittenburg said, “We had to pick up our game because they are such a good team. They are probably the best team we will see all year and it was good to see that we could fight and stay with them.”

“We played right with one of the best teams in the country,” added Lipp, “and we gave them all they could handle, so you have to feel good about that.”

Next up for Northwest Christian will be a home tilt with Southern Oregon University (5-10, 3-3 CCC) on Saturday night. The Beacons took both games from the Raiders during the 2007-2008 season and will tip-off at 7:30 pm for their first clash of the 08-09 campaign.