Whits switch up on Willamette

There are many ways to get a spark. Rub a couple sticks, strike a match, touch an exposed wire.

Or switch defenses.

The last is what Whitworth College basketball coach Jim Hayford used midway through the first half of his Pirates’ 80-58 Northwest Conference victory over Willamette before 1,110 at the Whitworth Fieldhouse on Friday night.

At that point the Bucs were behind 20-9 to the Bearcats, who came in undefeated in NWC play. The tempo was to Willamette’s liking: slow.

So Whitworth fired up a trapping zone.

“It jump-started us, woke us up,” said Pirates junior guard Jon Young. “It allowed us to take our defense up a gear, and, when we went back to man-to-man, it carried over.”

Did it ever.

With the trap spurring a methodical, 32-17 run over the next 10 minutes, the Pirates took a 46-41 lead into halftime. Then Whitworth (8-4 overall, 2-1 in NWC play), playing man-to-man exclusively, held the Bearcats to four points in the first seven minutes of the second half, building a 17-point lead and breezing from there.

How good was Whitworth’s defense after halftime? The Bearcats (6-5, 2-1), a nearly 50 percent shooting team on the season, hit 6 of 22 second-half shots, a season-low 27 percent. Oregon transfer C.J. Stuvland, who scored 17 first-half points on 6 of 10 shooting, finished with 17, and was only able to get two shots off against Young’s pressure.

“He’s our most consistent defensive player,” Hayford said of Young, who entered Whitworth three years ago known as a 3-point specialist. “If you talked to guys who graduated from here two years ago, they would never believe I would say that.”

But Young, one of four Pirate starters who hit double figures (with 13), has made a commitment to the defensive end.

“I know now that even if I don’t have my best shooting night, I can help the team in other ways,” he said. “I know I can get the ball back on the other end and give my team more possessions, more chances to score.”

And Whitworth rarely lets a chance go by. The Pirates offense is all about mismatches, and each possession they try to find one to exploit.

“We have two guys in Lance (Pecht) and George (Tucker) who are big guys who can slash to the basket,” Hayford said. “If you guard them with a big man, they can go by; if you guard them with a smaller man, they can post up.”

It was Pecht’s turn Friday as he hit 9 of 15 shots en route to a game-high 21 points. He also had eight rebounds as the Pirates won that battle 40-29.

Tucker, saddled with early foul trouble, had 11 points, the same as starting center Kevin Hasenfus.

But this one was won on the defensive end.

“Really, our team defense is getting better and better every night,” Young said. “We are doing such a good job of helping each other, we can really get up and face guard their shooters because we know there is someone at your back.”

North Idaho 88, Snow 82

Mac Hopson scored 19 of his 29 points in the second half as the Cardinals rallied to defeat the Badgers in a Scenic West Athletic Conference game in Ephraim, Utah.

Hopson shot 5 of 8 from the floor and 9 of 10 from the free-throw line for NIC (13-2, 3-1), which went to the line 29 times in the second half and outscored Snow 53-41.

Darin Nagle added 19 points and Scotty Stockwell (Post Falls High) 11 for the Cardinals, while Frank Clair pulled down six rebounds.

Geoff Payne scored 41 points on 16-of-21 shooting and pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Badgers (2-13, 0-4).

Mike Clark added 16 points but shot just 4 of 15 from 3-point range, and Tyler Quinney had 15 points and 10 rebounds.