Pirates Show Pioneers Their Championship Form

It was ironic that the Lewis & Clark Pioneers had a luxury box to view the Whitworth Pirates cutting down the nets after the Pirates defeated the Pioneers in the Northwest Conference championship game Saturday night at Whitworth.

The upstairs part of the Whitworth fieldhouse is a classroom with a window that overlooks the entire building. The room also serves as the visiting team locker room.

The Pioneers couldn’t forget their 63-53 defeat immediately after the game. The view just wouldn’t let that happen.

Whitworth grabbed the conference’s automatic bid to the NAIA Division II playoffs, scheduled for Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa, Idaho, March 6-12. The Pirates will learn the identity of their first-round opponent early this week.

With the win, the fifth-ranked Pirates - who own a record of 22-4 - finished the regular season with a 13-0 record at home. Whitworth hasn’t lost a conference game on its homecourt in two years.

Warren Friedrichs, named the Northwest Conference coach of the year last week, thanked the crowd of close to 2,500 fans for its fervent support.

Whitworth’s Nate Dunham, the conference’s player of the year, echoed that sentiment.

“It was good to win it here for the fans,” Dunham said. “This (title) is just as much theirs as it is ours.”

And appropriately enough, Dunham (also selected to the all-conference team), Roman Wickers and Nate Williams led the Pirates past Lewis & Clark. Wickers was also a first-team selection while Williams was a second-team choice.

Williams led all scorers with 17 points, Wickers finished with 15 and Dunham had 13.

Those three had to be up to the task because Lewis & Clark wanted this one. It wasn’t until the very end that Whitworth could breathe a sigh of relief.

In the second half, Whitworth pulled out to a 43-36 lead on a jump shot by Doug Schulz with 8:30 remaining. However, Lewis & Clark’s Whitney Brake scored seven points to cut the deficit to 45-43.

Teammate Carl Schreck hit a 3-pointer shortly thereafter to give the Pioneers a 48-47 lead with 4:15 to play.

Williams immediately scored for Whitworth, and the Pirates never trailed again.

Down the stretch, Wickers hit two free throws and a basket and Williams scored from the field and hit 6 of 6 free throws.

Lewis & Clark led 27-26 at the half and controlled the tempo by slowing the pace.

“I thought we were anxious in the first half,” Friedrichs said. “We played with much better poise and patience in the second, and we did a better job of hitting the boards.”

The Pioneers were led by Brake’s 16 points, Brandon Nicholson’s 11 and Jeff Flowers’ 10.

At 16-9, Pioneers’ coach Bob Gallard is hoping this won’t be his team’s last game of the season.

“We’ve beaten two nationally ranked teams (Whitworth and Western Oregon), we’re nationally ranked (24th), we got to the conference finals, I think we’re worthy of an at-large bid. But hey, who ever knows what goes through the minds of the selection committee.”

At-large bids go out Monday.

Whitworth 63, Lewis & Clark 52

Lewis & Clark (16-9) - Brake 6-9 3-4 16, Meek 4-8 0-0 10, Nicholson 4-13 3-5 11, Schreck 1-8 0-0 3, Lam 1-10 0-0 3, Moszer 0-3 0-0 0, Kingma 0-0 0-0 0, Flowers 4-6 2-2 10. Totals - 20-57 8-11 53.

Whitworth (22-4) - Weston 1-1 0-0 2, Mix 1-3 0-0 2, Williams 5-8 6-6 17, Wickers 6-16 2-4 15, Jones 2-6 2-3 7, Dunham 6-7 1-3 13, Arkills 2-7 1-4 5, Beckman 0-2 0-0 0, Schulz 1-2 0-0 2. Totals - 24-52 12-20 63.

Halftime-L&C 27, Whitworth 26. 3-point goals-Lewis & Clark 5-22 (Lam 1-8, Schreck 1-7, Nicholson 0-1, Meek 2-5, Brake 1-1), Whitworth 3-14 (Williams 1-2, Wickers 1-7, Jones 1-4, Beckman 0-1). Total fouls-L&C 21, W 15. Fouled out- Meek. Technical fouls-none. Rebounds-L&C 22 (Brake 9), Whitworth 38 (Dunham 12). Assists-L&C 8 (Nicholson, Lam 3), Whitworth 13 (Jones 4). Att-2,500.

, DataTimes