Pirates Dust Themselves Off, Overhaul Lc
The streak was in serious danger of going down Saturday night at the Fieldhouse. But when the 3s finally began to fall, the eighth-ranked Whitworth College men’s basketball team erased a 20-point, first-half deficit and came away with an 82-73 win over No. 12 Lewis & Clark College.
The victory was the Bucs’ 43rd straight home win, but more important to their immediate needs was that it keeps them alone at the top of the Northwest Conference standings with a 12-3 record (17-5 overall) with two regular-season road games remaining before the four-team Northwest Conference postseason tournament.
The Pioneers NAIA Division II tournament qualifiers for the past three seasons dropped to 16-6, 11-5. But there was a time about the first 25 minutes when it looked as though LC would be the team that snapped Whitworth’s homecourt winning streak which began when this year’s seniors were freshmen.
But Whitworth’s offense kicked in about 5 minutes into the second half, particularly from 3-point range.
First up was senior Greg Jones, who hit two 3s along with two from inside the paint to cut the Pioneers’ lead to 53-48 with 12:14 remaining. Jones led the Pirates with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting and 3 of 5 from 3-point range. The Pirates shot 9 of 22 from 3-point range, but were 1 of 8 in a first half that found them trailing by as much as 33-13 with 4:47 left.
“I decided to come out and be the aggressor on offense and defense. Get a little mean,” said Jones, a senior forward from West Valley High School who struggled in the first half on 0-of-5 shooting.
Freshman guard Ryan Nelson was the next to take over in bombs-away land. His 3 with 8:51 left tied the game at 56. One minute later, Tyler Jordan gave the Pirates their first lead on a 3-pointer, 59-58. Jordan, who finished with 19 points, followed 40 seconds later with another 3-pointer to give the Bucs a 62-58 lead. They never trailed after that.
“The best part,” said Pirates coach Warren Friedrichs, “was when we caught them, we didn’t stop. We kept the momentum going and the crowd was really up.”
However, the crowd - an estimated 1,600 - was as silent as snow in the first half as Whitworth came out shooting 1 for 10 and finished a miserable 8 of 28 in the half. LC, meanwhile, hit 16 of 33 shots in the first half by filling the lane and hitting from outside. Six-foot-7 senior Whitney Brake scored 13 points in the first half and finished with 16.
Jeff Flowers, his 6-7 partner in the paint, had 19 points and 15 of LC’s 48 rebounds. Guard Brooks Meek - who holds a 21.2 scoring average - finished with 17 points. However, the 6-0 senior guard’s most-remembered moment came in the second half after Nelson tied the score at 56. Meek was fouled on the Pioneers’ next possession and unloaded an airball on his first free throw. He missed the second, but Flowers jumped in for the putback to give the Pioneers their last lead.
“We played pretty well, but the game just had ebbs and flows,” LC coach Bob Gaillard said.
Whitworth 82, Lewis & Clark 73
L&C (16-6, 11-5) - Meek 5-16 6-7 17, Gilford 1-2 0-0 3, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Ulmer 0-2 0-0 0, Brake 7-17 1-2 16, Kingma 0-1 0-0 0, Henderson 0-0 0-0 0, Schreck 3-11 2-2 10, Burrows 0-0 0-0 0, Klang 1-3 0-2 2, Flowers 9-15 1-1 19, Puccioni 2-6 2-4 6. Totals 28-73 11-18 73.
WHITWORTH (17-5, 13-3) - Ramey 0-0 0-0 0, Mix 6-10 0-0 12, Weston 2-6 4-4 9, Schulz 3-8 0-0 6, Nakanishi 0-1 2-2 2, Nelson 2-6 0-0 6, Helmerman 2-9 1-2 5, Sullivan 0-0 0-0 0, McDaniel 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan 4-6 9-10 19, Jones 6-12 6-6 20, Ruebel 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 28-59 21-24 82.
Halftime - L&C 37, Whitworth 24. 3-point goals - L&C 6-29 (Meek 2-10, Gilford 1-2, Ulmer 0-2, Brake 1-2, Schreck 2-9, Klang 0-1, Puccioni 0-3), Whitworth 9-22 (Weston 1-3, Nelson 2-5, Helmerman 0-5, Jordan 2-2, Jones 3-5, Ruebel 1-2). Fouled out - Meek. Rebounds - L&C 48 (Flowers 15), Whitworth 32 (Mix 11). Assists - L&C 13 (Schreck 6), Whitworth 14 (Jordan 5). Total fouls - L&C 24, Whitworth 16. Technicals - None. A - 1,600.
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