Inspired Whits Trip L-C State
With Lewis-Clark State College’s two leading scorers in the doghouse, the Whitworth Pirates stepped into the penthouse Tuesday night, whipping the Warriors 65-46 with an inspired second-half effort.
Whitworth (3-1) trailed 30-29 at halftime, but the Pirates outscored L-C State 23-2 during a nearly 12-minute stretch of the second half and held the Warriors (4-2) to only 16 points after the break.
The Warriors left more than 30 points per game of offense in Lewiston as coach George Pfeifer suspended Jeremiah Wynott (17 ppg) and James Long (13) earlier Tuesday. Wynott, said Pfeifer, “hasn’t met our academic standards,” and will also miss Lewis-Clark’s weekend road trip to NCAA Division I Utah and Utah State. Long violated team rules, but will make the Utah trip.
Even without those two, L-C led most of the first half as 6-foot-9, 260-pound Michael Ross scored 15 points and the Pirates made 10 turnovers.
Whitworth coach Warren Friedrichs changed tactics at halftime, though, switching to a sagging man-to-man defense that the Pirates had used successfully in previous years but had worked on only briefly this week.
“We only practiced it for about 20 minutes yesterday,” Friedrichs said, “but the guys played it really well. We were picking up their guards very high in the first half and Ross killed us underneath.
“We backed off the pressure in the second half, though, and did a very good job, I thought. We were very focused.”
That’s one word for it. The Warriors led 40-37 after Ross’ free throw at the 14:00 mark - his last point, incidentally - and scored only one basket in the next 11:20 as Whitworth put together runs of 13 and 10 points to build an 18-point lead.
Junior transfer Nate Williams was one key Pirate during the huge turnaround, scoring nine points and dishing out several assists. Nate Dunham had three baskets, Roman Wickers a couple and John Beckman started the surge with a 3-point hoop that tied the score at 40-all.
“I think we just wore them down,” said Williams of the Pirates’ second-half success. “They’re a lot bigger, and the more we ran, the more tired they got.”
He finished with 19 points, 14 in the second half, and had six assists with only one turnover. Dunham contributed 15 points and seven rebounds and Wickers scored 13.