UPS wins NWC tourney, automatic NCAA bid
TACOMA – The Whitworth Pirates saw their 11-game win streak come to an end on Saturday night in the Northwest Conference Tournament championship game.
The Pirates post-season hopes may have ended along with the win streak. Puget Sound claimed the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament with a 96-84 win.
“You would think that it’s hard to ignore a team with 20 wins,” said Whitworth coach Jim Hayford. “But we didn’t take care of our business earlier in the year when we should have, so I doubt (we’ll get in).”
Puget Sound secured its third straight bid to the tournament, which begins Thursday. The bracket will be announced Monday morning. Whitworth has to hope to get one of 18 at-large bids.
University of Puget Sound senior Chase Curtiss narrowly missed winning the Northwest Conference Most Valuable Player award – but he was clearly the MVP of the conference championship game last night.
Curtiss scored 28 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and dished out nine assists.
“I told him I thought he had an All-American performance tonight,” said Hayford. “I’m really glad he’s graduating.”
Curtiss was 6 for 12 on 3-point attempts, and the Loggers were 15 for 30 as a team. It was a far cry from a game two weeks ago at Whitworth, when the Loggers went 3 for 23 on treys while losing by 24 points.
“Credit the coaching staff – they made some great adjustments to get us open looks,” said Curtiss.
“We have to pick our poison,” said Hayford. “We have a hard time guarding their dribble penetration, so we get into a zone. The zone looked really good (two weeks ago) when they missed, but tonight they shot 50 percent on threes.”
Puget Sound played with intensity in the opening minutes, building a 12-4 lead.
Whitworth bounced back and tied the game at 18 on a James Jones 3-pointer with 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
The Loggers went on a 29-11 run to close the first half and eventually led by 22 points early in the second.
Curtiss and Antwan Williams were deadly from the outside as the Loggers pulled away. Williams was 5 for 6 on 3-pointers and finished with 19 points.
Whitworth turned to a frantic full-court press in the second half and was able to narrow the gap.
A steal by George Tucker and ensuing layup from Lance Pecht made it 73-68 with 4 minutes 47 seconds to play. That was as close as the Pirates would get, as the Loggers hit enough free throws down the stretch to stay ahead.
Jones led the Pirates with 20 points. The junior averages 6.0 points per game, but he scored 30 and 20 in his two games on the Puget Sound campus.
Bryan Williams scored 18 points and had eight assists – but he also made eight turnovers.
Whitworth’s Pecht won the NWC Player of the Year award by one vote over Curtiss – the slimmest margin in years. Pecht scored 14 points and had seven rebounds for Whitworth, shooting 6 for 15 from the floor.