Pirates clinch trip to nationals
The Whitworth men’s basketball team and its legion of fans are resting easy today. The Pirates already know they’re in.
The Pirates stopped Lewis & Clark College 69-62 Saturday at the Whitworth Fieldhouse to capture the Northwest Conference tournament championship and, more important, the automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament that goes with it.
The Division III tournament draw is expected to be released at 6 a.m. PST Monday. First-round tournament games begin Thursday.
“I can tell you this: If we hadn’t won this game, I was dreading a long weekend hitting the refresh button on my computer, waiting for the tournament draw to be announced to see if we were in,” senior guard Jon Young said. “We know we’re in the tournament and we can go ahead and get ready to play on Thursday. We already have practices scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.”
Young drilled 4 of 9 shots 3-pointers – 3 of 6 in the first half – to lead Whitworth with 22 points. Junior forward Ryan Symes added another 18 points.
But the 23-3 Pirates didn’t shoot their way into the tournament. They earned the guaranteed berth by hounding the Pioneers outside shooters and crashing the boards.
“This team has gotten a lot of attention for leading the nation in offensive field goal percentage,” Whitworth coach Jim Hayford said. “But as coaches, what we’re most proud of is that we’re in the top 10 percent of teams in the nation in field-goal percentage defense.”
Whitworth defended the outside shot, limiting Lewis & Clark to 7 of 34 3-pointers and 34.8 percent from the field.
But the Pioneers, winners of 10 straight coming into the championship game, crashed the offensive boards in the first half, scrambling back into the game behind second- and third-chance shots.
The team grabbed a dozen offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes, outrebounding the home team 21-14.
“We knew this game was going to go to whoever played the hardest, not necessarily who made the most shots,” Young said. “That’s their team. They’re a never-say-die team. Look at their team. That’s something Coach Hayford has said repeatedly: There’s no quit in them. You can go up by 20, but they’re still going to come right back at you.”
Whitworth doubled its efforts on the boards in the second half, pulling down 21 defensive boards in the final 20 minutes and finished with a 43-41 edge in total rebounds.
The Pirates held a three-point lead and had the ball in the final seconds of the first half. Guard James Jones, the senior from Manchester, England, drove the lane but missed a layup. Lewis & Clark’s Thomas Tillery came out with a rebound and found Joey Taboni for an easy jumper at the buzzer to cut the Whitworth lead to 35-34.
The Pioneers led 43-41 just 5 minutes into the second half, but Young buried his only 3-pointer of the second half to put Whitworth ahead for good with 14:26 left.
“I can’t say enough good things about Jon Young,” Hayford said. “As a senior, he really stepped up. He was the Northwest Conference Player of the Week and helped us get a big road win at Whitman and a win at home against Willamette to finish off the regular season. If there’s a championship game MVP, it has to be Jon Young.”