Pacific Men Roll Past Whitworth Boxers Take One-Game Lead Over Pirates With 78-73 Win

The Whitworth College men’s basketball team stumbled in the Northwest Conference race Friday night, falling to Pacific University 78-73.

The Boxers (16-5, 10-3), ranked 12th in the NAIA Division II poll, have a one-game lead over No. 16 Whitworth (16-5, 9-4) with three games left on the Pirates’ regular-season schedule. Whitworth travels to No. 15 Lewis & Clark tonight.

In Friday’s game, the Pirates fell behind early 19-5, but only trailed by five points, 40-35, at intermission.

Whitworth tied the game at 51 midway into the second half, but couldn’t quite keep pace.

In the final minute, though, the Pirates did manage to pull to within 74-73 when Ben Heimerman scored off a missed free throw and then tacked on another point from the free-throw line.

Pacific converted four consecutive free throws in the final 14 seconds to remain unbeaten at home.

“You go on the road and have to face a lot of good people,” said Whitworth coach Warren Friedrichs, whose team has lost four NCIC road games this season.

Whitworth failed from the freethrow line, converting just 15 of 28, while Pacific made 30 of 37.

Whitworth point guard Nate Williams led all scorers with 28 points. Brett Jefferies scored 26 for Pacific.

Women: Whitworth 63, Pacific 57

Jen Tissue scored 19 points as the Pirates ran their winning streak to six straight and remained in the hunt for a top-four finish in the NCIC.

Whitworth improved to 8-5 in the conference (12-9 overall), which puts it in fifth place behind George Fox, a team that beat Willamette Friday night 68-49 to improve to 9-5 in the conference, 12-9 overall. The top four teams qualify for the postseason tournament.

Tissue, the NAIA Division II leading free-throw shooter, was 8 of 9 from the line. Senior center Sherri Northington and freshman Myra Slwooko each finished with 10 points.

The teams played to a 23-23 halftime tie.