Boutin gets 600th victory.

Byline: CHRIS HANSEN The Register-Guard

No one said getting to 600 wins would be easy, let alone getting No. 600.

Jim Boutin hit that mark Tuesday night as Lane Community College opened its season with a 62-57 victory against Northwest Christian College at O'Hara Catholic School.

Dave Brautigam's jump shot with 34 seconds remaining broke a 57-57 tie and the Titans held on to give their coach his milestone win.

Boutin, who is in his 11th season at Lane and 35th overall, becomes only the third coach in the state of Oregon to reach 600 victories, joining current Oregon Institute of Technology coach Dan Miles (653) and former Oregon State coach Ralph Miller (674).

"People have made a big deal about it, but it just shows I've had an opportunity to work with a lot of great kids," Boutin said. "I'm touched, but I'm glad it's over and now we can kind of get on with the season."

Brautigam led both teams with 26 points - 17 in the second half - and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Dave Best and Paul Miller scored 11 each, and Keith Baker added 10 for the Titans, who made 45 percent of their shots and outrebounded the Crusaders 36-31.

But it was Brautigam's efforts in the final 30 seconds that secured Lane's win, after Dusty Arlyn hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds to go to tie the game for NCC (3-3).

Brautigam received the ball at the free-throw line and backed his way in toward the basket, gave a little fake to his right, then spun left and hit the 10-foot turnaround.

"It's a play I've been working on in practice and had confidence I could make," said Brautigam of his game-winning shot. "If my team's going to get me the ball, I've got to do something with it."

Tyus Tillman missed an open jumper at the other end for the Crusaders, and Arlyn fouled Scott Calhoun to put the freshman at the free-throw line with 10 seconds left. Calhoun made his first attempt and missed the second, but Brautigam grabbed the rebound and put it back up and in for the score and a five-point lead.

"Brautigam had an incredible second half," Boutin said. "He got himself organized and started attacking."

That the game even came down to the final minute serves as a tribute to NCC's resiliency. The Crusaders trailed 30-22 at halftime after failing to score a point in the final eight minutes of the half as the Titans had a 10-0 run.

NCC failed on its first two shots of the second half to make it 13 consecutive misses, before Tillman's layup at the 17:36 mark broke nearly an 11-minute scoring drought.

It also sparked an 11-0 run for the Crusaders, capped by Kiumbu Fisher's three-pointer at 16:41 to give NCC a 33-30 lead. Fisher led NCC with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Back-to-back layups by Brautigam gave the lead back to Lane, and then the teams traded leads for the final 15 minutes.

"I felt they completely outplayed us in the first half," NCC coach Dave Lipp said. "But we played with them in the second half until the final minute when they just made more plays than we did."

Lipp paused, then added: "Coach Lipp wants to congratulate coach Boutin - 600 wins, what a wonderful, wonderful thing."

Even if it came the hard way.

CAPTION(S):

Lane Community College coach Jim Boutin stresses a point to his players during a timeout in Tuesday's win over Northwest Christian.