(SAN DIEGO)
Brian Goracke had over 30 family members in attendance on Saturday evening when PLNU Men's Basketball hosted Concordia in Golden Gym.
He rewarded them with a career-high 32 points.
Goracke's scoring output, along with
Luke Haupt's first career triple-double, led ninth-ranked Point Loma to a 97-80 win over the Golden Eagles.
"My family's great," Goracke said. "To have a career-high with them all there, it means a lot."
PLNU Head Coach
Matt Logie said the best version of Goracke and Haupt were on display Saturday.
"BG is one of our most efficient offensive players that we've had here," Logie said. "It really was a credit to Brian tonight that it wasn't just the perimeter shooting. He was able to get into the paint, post-up and make some nice cuts. We needed those points in the paint.
"Luke is a guy who fills up the stat sheet every night. In my mind, it was just a matter of time before one of those triple-doubles happened."
Point Loma led by five at halftime but Concordia's fast start to the second half gave the visitors a four-point lead.
Jake Lifgren's layup then regained PLNU's advantage before the Sea Lions went on a 14-0 run to run away with the game.
"You've got to credit Concordia for the way they came out and competed today," Logie said. "They played really hard and really together. I thought our guys responded in the second half by just being a little more solid defensively. We were able to get the ball in the paint a ton."
The Sea Lions dominated in the low-post with a 58-32 advantage in points in the paint.
"Brian and Luke both did a really nice job of touching the paint and finding ways to get in there and take advantage of our size," Logie said.
Haupt (16 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) secured his triple double late in the game with a sweet feed to a streaking
Kaden Anderson toward the basket.
"It makes it pretty easy to play basketball when you have guys like Shamrock, Tobin, Brian and Kaden who can spread the floor," Haupt said.
As a team, Point Loma shot 57.4 overall and 40% from 3-point range, as the Sea Lions scored their second-most points of the season.
"We shot efficiently from the 3-point line, but we didn't settle," Logie said. "That was big for us, especially in a game that was physical on both sides. We were able to take advantage of our size and our athleticism. That's one of the things that our frontcourt has at the 3, 4 and 5 positions. It was good to see that balance."
Joining Goracke and Haupt in double figures were Anderson (18 points, eight rebounds) and
Tobin Karlberg (12 points, seven rebounds).
Point Loma (23-3 overall, 18-0 PacWest) extended its winning streak to 19 games. The Sea Lions will look to make that 20-straight when PLNU hosts Hawaii Pacific on Saturday at 8 p.m. in its annual Homecoming game.
"We just have to keep our mind on our goals," Haupt said. "We're trying to go 20-0 in this conference. If you slip up and take one game easy, you can very easily lose a game in this conference. So just staying focused and concentrating on the next game."
