Weston Sparks Whitworth Reserve Guard Helps Pirates Pull Away From Whitman, Into Sole Possession Of First

Five minutes of quality court time may not make anyone the man of the hour, but Whitworth College reserve guard Sean Weston’s prime time off the pine helped the Pirates to a 92-82 victory over Whitman Tuesday night at the Fieldhouse.

On a night when Whitworth’s big guys made big scoring contributions - Jeff Mix scored 22 points and Ben Heimerman added 18 - it was the 5-foot-8 Weston’s furious five midway in the second half that helped the Pirates break contact with Whitman.

The victory in the opener of a huge three-game week at home pushed the eighth-ranked Pirates to a league-leading Northwest Conference record of 11-3, 15-5 overall. They face Pacific Lutheran Friday night and 12th-ranked Lewis & Clark Saturday night.

George Fox (12-8 overall, 10-4 NCIC) fell into second place Tuesday night, losing at Willamette 80-75.

The victory over Whitman was Whitworth’s 41st straight at home, but the Missionaries (9-11, 7-7) hung tough on Tuesday, and Pirate coach Warren Friedrichs is hoping that they’ll give the Bucs some help this weekend in Walla Walla against the same pair of opponents. LC is third in the NCIC and PLU fourth.

The Pirates had enjoyed great success inside against Whitman, but still led only 59-53 with 13 minutes to play. Enter Weston, who in the next 5:30 had eight points - including a pair of 3’s - and four assists. When he left, after feeding Mix for a fast-break layup with 7:45 left, Whitworth had extended its lead to 19 points, 82-63.

“That’s the way coach uses me now,” Weston said after the win. “When we’re laggin’ a little, I know that my job is to go in and give us a spark, try to get some energy back in our game.

“We weren’t very happy with the way we played in the first half (the Pirates watched a 10-point lead shrink to four at intermission) and I had the chance to help us put on a little spurt.”

That little spurt helped the Pirates to 73 percent shooting in the second half, 61 for the game. That made Whitman’s mere 50 percent performance look shabby, when it was anything but.

Friedrichs didn’t have much of a voice left afterwards, but he had enough to praise Whitman, which had him worried. “They’ve been playing very well, particularly their big scorers,” he said.

“We thought we could go inside against them, and we did, but we also thought if we played it uptempo, we could bother their shooters a little more than we did.”

Nothing the Pirates did bothered Whitman guard Dan Rough much. He was 5 for 6 in the first half on his way to a 26-point night which included six 3-pointers. Teammate Mike Keyser made 6 of 7 shots in the first 20 minutes. Everybody else was 4 for 18.

Mix made 10 of 14 shots and Heimerman was 7 for 11. Mix also led the Pirates with 10 rebounds.

Whitworth 92, Whitman 82

Whitman - Hendry 5-14 0-0 12, Rough 9-16 2-3 26, Durkin 0-0 0-0 0, Justice 0-0 0-0 0, Washington 4-9 0-2 17, Evans 6-14 5-8 17, Keyser 7-9 0-2 16, Wyatt 1-2 0-0 2, Rukavina 0-0 0-0 0. Totals - 32-64 7-13 82.

Whitworth - Ramey 0-1 2-2 2, Mix 10-14 2-3 22, Weston 4-6 0-0 11, Schulz 2-3 0-0 5, Nakanishi 1-1 0-0 3, Nelson 2-4 0-0 6, Heimerman 7-11 3-3 18, Sullivan 0-0 0-0 0, McDaniel 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan 4-9 1-2 11, Jones 4-6 1-2 10, Ruebel 2-4 0-0 5. Totals - 36-59 9-12 92.

Halftime - Whitworth 43, Whitman 39. 3-point goals - Whitman 11-22 (Rough 6-10, Keyser 2-3, Hendry 2-5, Wyatt 1-2, Washington 0-1, Evans 0-1), Whitworth 11-23 (Weston 3-5, Nelson 2-4, Jordan 2-6, Jones 1-2, Ruebel 1-3, Nakanishi 1-1, Heimerman 1-1, Ramey 0-1). Total Fouls - Whitman 10, Whitworth 9. Rebounds - Whitman 28 (Keyser 6), Whitworth 30 (Mix 10). Assists - Whitman 22 (Heirmerman 5), Whitworth 20 (Hendry 20). Fouled out - none. Technicals - none.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo