Whits win D-III opener
ST. LOUIS – With the game on the line, Whitworth College did the only logical thing – get the ball to Bryan Williams.
Williams, the Northwest Conference Player of the Year from Mead, drained a 3-pointer as time expired in overtime to hand the Pirates a 62-59 victory over DePauw University in the first round of the NCAA Division III men’s basketball championships on the campus of Washington University Friday.
In the waning seconds of the extra period and the game tied at 51, Whitworth pulled down a defensive rebound with 5 seconds left. The Pirates rushed to the offensive end and nearly lost the ball penetrating the lane.
Three seconds.
Jon Young secured the ball and kicked it to Ryan Symes, who paused for an instance to look for a lane.
Two seconds.
Symes caught a glimpse of James Jones and kicked the ball out to the right elbow. The defense shifted.
One second.
Jones reversed the ball to Williams, who let fly on a wide open 3-pointer from the left arc. As the ball neared the rim, the horn sounded, and the ball barely touched net.
“I was just hoping it wasn’t short, but once it came off I felt it had a good chance of going down,” said Williams, who had 10 points in the game.
“We survived. We had our chances to put them away and didn’t take care of a lot of them. Sometimes I think you’ve got to be lucky, and I think we were a little bit tonight.”
Symes, who scored 15 points, said he thought about taking it himself for a split instant.
“John passed it to me and I thought about going and trying to attack,” Symes said. “But James looked like he had a wide-open shot, but he swung it one more time to Bryan.
“Once Bryan shot, I thought, ‘That thing is going in.’ “
Whitworth (24-3) seemed to have control of the game entering the second half with a 36-28 lead and shooting 60 percent.
But the baskets stopped falling. Finger-rolls didn’t roll, layups rimmed out and 3-pointers went long as the Pirates shot just 24 percent from the field in the second half – well off their nation-leading average of 52.8 percent.
“It’s a game that shouldn’t have gone to overtime,” Whitworth coach Jim Hayford said. “We were very, very generous toward DePauw late in the game. The game of basketball usually doesn’t let you atone for your sins like that.”
The Pirates, ranked 11th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, took a 51-44 lead with 1:54 remaining in regulation when Jones hit one of his three 3-pointers en route to a game-high 18 points.
DePauw (22-6) pulled within one at 51-50 on Brian Oilar’s 3-pointer with 21 seconds left, and Mike Moore tied it by hitting 1 of 2 free throws with 7 seconds remaining.
The Pirates set an early defensive tone with their 1-3-1 zone in the first half. DePauw struggled to find anything resembling an open shot and needed more than 6 minutes to hit its first field goal.
After missing four 3-pointers and turning the ball over four times, Reid Sakel hit a 3-pointer to pull the Tigers within 8-5 with 13:35 showing on the clock.
“We saw on film that teams zoned them and exploited some things,” Williams said. “We felt that it’s been our go-to defense this year.”
Whitworth will face host and No. 8-ranked Washington University, a 77-58 winner over Fontbonne University, at 5 p.m. (PST) today in second-round action.
“We’re one of the few conferences in the country that plays back-to-back nights, Friday-Saturday, so we’re used to this,” Williams said.