Pecht supplies huge spark

Lance Pecht scored a career-high 29 points Tuesday night, helping the Whitworth Pirates survive the Whitman Missionaries 94-86 before 560 fans at the Fieldhouse.

None of Pecht’s points was more important than his final three, coming with 56 seconds left and the Pirates leading 83-80. With the 35-second clock winding down, Pecht rose from the left side and buried a 20-footer.

“Those shots aren’t hard,” Pecht said of the final nail in Whitman’s hopes. “You don’t have to worry about making that extra pass. With the clock winding down, you know you just have to shoot it and make it.”

He did.

It was followed in succession by a hurried 3 on the other end, the last of Kevin Hasenfus’ five rebounds, then his two free throws. With that, the Pirates had raised their Northwest Conference record to 4-3 (10-6 overall).

Not that it was easy.

From midway through the second half, it was obvious it wasn’t a matter of winning, but a matter of enduring. Both teams were playing their third game in five days, for the Missionaries (7-8, 3-4) their third consecutive road contest.

The Pirates starters played 182 of a possible 200 minutes, and after building a 12-point lead (72-60) midway through the second half, they seemed to hit a wall. Whitman increased the pressure, went on a 13-3 run and got within two with 3:47 left. From there it was back and forth until Pecht’s shot.

Pecht, George Tucker (20 points) and Hasenfus supplied most of the offense, while all of the Pirates tried to stop Kyle Born.

The 6-foot-6 Whitman post, coming off a 27 point, 22-rebound effort against the University of Puget Sound, was the focus of the Pirates’ defense and the fulcrum of the Missionaries’ first-half offense.

At the intermission he had 23 points, more than half Whitman’s total. But he finished with only 25 and, maybe more important, five rebounds, as the 6-7 Hasenfus did everything he could to keep him off the boards.

“With a guy like Kyle, you can’t stop him with just one guy,” Pirates coach Jim Hayford said. “You have to play team defense. Not that we did a very good job of that in the first half. He single-handedly kept them in the game.”

With Born under control after halftime, Whitman’s Matt Kelly stepped up, scoring 19 of his 23 points.

But it wasn’t enough, in large part because Pecht hit the big shot.

“We know Lance is one of the premier players in this conference,” Hayford said of the senior from West Valley High, “but premier players have to do it consistently. He showed tonight he is one of the best.”

Pecht saw his total, which was two points better than his previous high against Linfield last month, a result of a team effort.

“Coach ran some real good plays, the other guys set some great screens and that got me some real good looks,” he said. “Then they switched a lot, which got us some mismatches.”

Women

Emily Hendrickson’s putback with 2.6 seconds left capped a rally from a 15-point, first-half deficit as Whitworth kept its home record perfect at 7-0 by knocking off Whitman 63-61.

Hendrickson, who scored the last four points for Whitworth (9-6 overall, 3-4 in Northwest Conference play), was the only Pirates starter not in double figures. Holly Ridings led the way with 15, while Danielle Wegman added 14 and six rebounds. Teresa Zeitler had 11 points and Amy Ridings scored 10.

The Missionaries (6-9, 2-5), who led 28-13 with 3:54 left in the opening half, were paced by the game-high 20 points and nine rebounds of Lizzy Washburn.