Pirates uncover tiny gems while topping Orediggers

A 10-point run midway through the second half lifted the Whitworth Pirates to an 85-76 non-conference win over the Montana Tech Orediggers on a snowy Tuesday night.

But the 625 who braved the icy roads to get to the Whitworth Fieldhouse saw something more in the Pirates’ first home game of the season. They saw the essence of this Whitworth team.

They saw 6-foot-4 forward Lance Pecht draw the Orediggers’ 6-11 T.J. Scarbrough outside and drive by him for a late hoop, part of his 16 points. They saw George Tucker, also a 6-4 forward, get by 6-7 D.C. Egge to score time and again, finishing with 17 points. They saw 6-3 junior guard Jon Young hit half of his eight 3-pointers en route to 17 more.

And they saw junior point guard Bryan Williams slice through the Oredigger (3-5) defense for a game-high 22 points.

“We need to spread teams out because just about every one we will play will be bigger and longer than us,” Whitworth coach Jim Hanford said of this year’s Pirates. “When we do that, Bryan can penetrate and find guys. The neat part about it is we have so much confidence in him. He’s a veteran now and you expect him to do (what he did tonight).”

Williams, who has started since he was a freshman, played all 40 minutes and had the ball in his hands on each Pirates (2-1) possession. He was credited with five assists, hit 10 of 12 free throws and 5 of 6 from the floor.

“Last year I was called upon to take a leadership role, even though I was just a sophomore,” said the Mead High product. “This year I’m more comfortable in our offense and I feel more confident that I can lead us where we need to go.”

This weekend that road leads them to Oregon, for the first weekend of Northwest Conference play versus George Fox and Linfield.

“This week is key for us,” Williams said. “Our first two conference games are against two very good teams, but if we come out of the trip 2-0, we can build on that. We then don’t have another conference game until January.”

For the Pirates to do what Williams’ envisions, they’ll have to rebound better than they did (Tech had a 39-27 edge), defend better (Tech shot 51 percent from the floor, led by 5-11 guard Luke Harmon’s 8-of-11 shooting and 21 points) and they’ll have to stay out of foul trouble.

“Our plan from the beginning was to spread them out,” Hanford said. “We were able to do that for a while in the first half, but then George got into foul trouble (picking up his second with 7 minutes gone) and we had to tread water until the second half.”

They were able to do that despite shooting 36 percent from the field and despite being outrebounded by 11. Their two-point halftime lead was built on defense.

The Pirates forced 13 turnovers and Young put the clamps on Tech’s leading scorer, guard Davin Blixt. The senior from Helena took six shots in the opening half and missed them all. Even those six were hard earned, though, as Young outworked him to spots, denied cuts and had a hand in his face on all but one attempt.

“That set the tone for us,” Williams said. “We knew he was their best player, and Jon shut him down in the first half.”