Loggers top Pirates

Sixth-ranked Whitworth discovered Friday night that the men’s basketball season didn’t truly begin until the Pirates played Puget Sound.

The Northwest Conference’s three-time defending champions, UPS cleaned up its first-half miscues and unleashed a 51-point second half to rally past Whitworth for a 77-72 victory at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

Whitworth came into the game one of only three undefeated teams in the country but fell to 13-1. UPS, ranked 17th nationally, pulled even with the Pirates in the conference standings at 4-1 and improved to 11-2 overall.

“It’s never fun to lose, but now that we lost to them it’s a reality check,” Whitworth forward Ryan Symes said. “We have to come out every night and not take a night off.”

A lack of effort didn’t undo the Pirates. Rather, it was a lack of execution on both ends of the floor in the waning minutes that sabotaged their attempt to go two games up on UPS in the conference standings.

Symes converted a one-handed dunk to knot the score at 72-all with 1 minute, 31 seconds left in the game. Whitworth didn’t score another point, though, and UPS put the game away with respective jumpers from Robert Krauel and Jason Foster, as well as Krauel’s free throw with 16 seconds left.

“We had 15 turnovers in the first half and finished with (17),” Loggers coach Justin Lunt said. “We took care of the ball made a couple stands on defense and attacked on their mistakes.”

The Pirates played their first game without their leading scorer, James Jones, who broke his right hand in practice Tuesday. Jones’ eventual return is in question, and Whitworth coach Jim Hayford may be forced to tinker with his lineup throughout the rest of the conference schedule.

Hayford started just one guard – point guard Bryan Williams – and turned much of the ball-handling responsibility to forward Colin Willemsen and off guard Jon Young. The Loggers forced an average of 30 turnovers per game through their first 12 contests, but Whitworth held up adequately against the full-court press with 19 turnovers.

The Pirates also failed to net a 3-pointer for the first time in recent memory. Whitworth had made more than two in every game since recording a pair of 3-pointers against Pacific in February 2001. Jones is second on the team in 3-pointers made (31).

“It kills us,” Hayford said of Jones’ injury. “He’s our leading scorer and second ball-handler. Plus you’re looking at 35, 36 minutes of playing time. What makes me feel worse is that he’s a senior in college, and he doesn’t get a chance to play in games like this.”

The Loggers rank third nationally in scoring offense (109.7), but Whitworth’s defense limited UPS to a season-low 26 points in the first half. The Pirates attacked the lane with fervor, leading to a 31-26 edge at intermission.

Symes fired in a game-high 23 points for the Pirates, Kevin Hasenfus had 19 and Williams added 12 points and eight assists.

Taylor Marsh made five 3-pointers en route to 19 points for UPS.