Bruins’ hot shooting tops Pirates
The George Fox Bruins must like shooting in the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
They came into Saturday night’s Northwest Conference game shooting 35 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. They left it shooting 41 percent.
A school-record 12-of-13 night will do that for you.
It will also earn you an 89-78 victory over the Pirates, snapping the Bruins’ six-game losing streak against the Whits.
“We got exactly what we deserved,” Whitworth coach Jim Hayford said. “We didn’t defend the way we should have. Give George Fox credit for a great shooting night, but when a team starts shooting like that against you, you need to dig in and take your defense to another level.
“We’re young and we need to learn how to do that.”
The Bruins (6-4 overall and 2-0 after the opening weekend of Northwest Conference play) took their shooting to another level from the start, hitting their first eight 3-point shots. And they kept it there, hitting 61 percent from the floor on the night, including the hard-to-fathom 92 percent mark from beyond the arc.
Forward Philip Heu-Weller, who came in averaging 7.4 points a game, keyed the barrage, hitting four from long range, though he was the only Bruin to miss, that coming with 3 minutes, 48 seconds left in the first half. Still, the 6-foot-1 sophomore scored a season-high – and game-high 22 points.
That unexpected outburst was joined by 21 points from All-NWC forward Mark Gayman, who added an unexpected touch as well, converting 8 of 13 free throws. He came in shooting 52 percent from the free-throw line.
Point guard Ben Melvin added 17 before fouling out and Aaron Schmick, the Bruins’ leading scorer this season, chipped in 13.
George Fox’s total was the second-most the Pirates have yielded this season.
The early 3-point barrage, which keyed 81 percent shooting in the first 12 minutes, still didn’t put the Pirates away, who never trailed by more than four in the opening half. Using 11 players, of which nine scored, the Whits shot 58 percent in the opening half and hung on, even building a five-point lead twice, and leading 45-44 at halftime.
But the second half was another story.
Fox picked up the pressure, especially on point guard Bryan Williams, Whitworth went cold – hitting just 13 of 37 shots after intermission – and the Bruins pulled away in the final 11 minutes.
“It would have been a closer game if we had made our free throws,” said Hayford after examining a stat sheet that showed the Whits, who came in shooting 73 percent from the foul line, converting just 9 of 17 free-throw attempts.
And it would have been a bigger defeat if not for the shooting of redshirt sophomore Jon Young, who hit 5 of his 10 3-point attempts en route to a team-high 21 points.
“Jon Young is the best shooter in the conference and he showed that tonight,” Hayford said, “but he was no match for their whole team.”
The home loss robs the Pirates (5-5 overall, 1-1 in the NWC) of any momentum heading into next Friday’s showdown at the sixth-ranked University of Puget Sound Loggers, who swept Whitworth last season.