Hunting season
Jim Hayford would prefer alternating red and white circles on his back over a fluorescent orange vest any day.
Rest assured it’s not because they’d bring out the color in his eyes.
“I thought that in February we’d be in the mix,” Hayford said of his young Whitworth men’s basketball team contending for a Northwest Conference title. “I am surprised we’re going into the second half (of the NWC schedule) as the hunted and not the hunter. But I’ll take it.”
Whitworth cruised to an 83-57 home victory over UC Santa Cruz on Sunday afternoon in the Pirates’ final non-conference game. The Whits (14-3, 7-1 NWC) are tied with Puget Sound atop the league standings with eight NWC contests remaining. Those two teams shared the conference crown last year.
The Pirates were picked to finish third in this season’s NWC coaches’ preseason poll, but the team’s youngsters and recent transfers quickly assimilated themselves and are complementing the veteran play of Ryan Symes and Colin Willemsen.
With three starters sitting out against UCSC, Symes fired in a career-high 33 points, and Willemsen had 17. Freshmen Drew Bruns tossed in three 3-pointers early in the second half to put the game out of reach, and junior Tim Sellereit made his first start and scored 11 points after halftime.
“We have such a great group of guys,” Willemsen said. “They want to learn, and they want to get better.”
Willemsen pointed to the team’s recent road sweep of Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound as a catalyst for the team coming together. Interestingly, he said the inexperience of some of the players may have served as an advantage in those two games.
“Coach had never won a sweep in Tacoma,” Willemsen said. “In the past, I think maybe the seniors told themselves it was a tough place to win and they had to get at least one. So in a way – with a bunch of new guys – no one knew the history and just tried to go in and play well. … The sweep in Tacoma was big, and it gave us a lot of momentum.”
Point guard Ross Nakamura, who earned a rest Sunday along with fellow starters David Riley and injured post Nate Montgomery, entered the week leading the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.63). The juco transfer has filled in admirably following the graduation of last year’s NWC player of the year, Bryan Williams.
Through Jan. 20, the Pirates ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense (58.0 ppg) and fifth in scoring margin (plus-15.8). Whitworth surrendered 22 points through the first 111/2 minutes against UCSC before buckling down and outscoring the Banana Slugs 37-12 over the next 14 minutes to take an insurmountable 53-34 lead.
Ryan Matsuoka led UCSC with 22 points.