Pirates topple Pioneers

Nate Montgomery scored a career-high 26 points and pulled down seven rebounds Thursday and the 15th-ranked Whitworth Pirates held off a late Cal State East Bay rally to beat the Pioneers 85-80 in the first round of the Lee Fulmer Classic men’s basketball tournament at Redlands, Calif.

Calvin Jurich added 17 points and three assists and David Riley had 11 points for Whitworth (5-0). Ross Nakamura added nine points and seven rebounds.

The Pirates led 76-64 with 2 minutes, 44 seconds to play, but the Pioneers (1-2) closed to within 78-75 with 40 seconds left.

Whitworth’s Tim Sellereit and Nakamura hit crucial free throws in the final 30 seconds to secure the win.

The Pirates will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in tonight’s semifinals. C-M-S beat Southwestern College (Ariz.) 75-48.

College volleyball

Gonzaga University head coach Kip Yoshimura has announced his resignation after seven seasons with the Bulldogs.

Yoshimura compiled a 58-150 overall record while at Gonzaga and a 17-81 mark in the West Coast Conference.

Yoshimura led the 2007 squad to the Bulldogs’ best finish in 14 years with a 17-13 overall record. This season the Zags tied for sixth in the conference with a 3-11 mark, their highest finish in eight seasons.

•The Lewis-Clark State College Warriors saw their season come to an end with a 25-17, 25-21, 19-25, 25-20 loss to Lubbock (Texas) Christian in the final match of pool play at the NAIA National Championships at Sioux City, Iowa.

LCSC finished pool play at 1-2 and ended the season at 30-4.

College swimming

Rugile Mileisyte set a Washington State record in the women’s 50 freestyle with a time of 22.86 seconds for a fourth-place finish in the “B” final at the Texas Invitational in Austin.

Prep cross country

Members of North Central’s state championship boys team will chase another title Saturday at the Nike Cross Nationals.

Club teams from nine regions plus at-large teams make up the 22-team field for the competition at Portland Meadows race track. NC has been ranked No. 1 all year by The Harrier magazine.

The boys championship race is at noon, following a girls open race at 8:30 a.m., boys open race at 9 and girls championship race at 10:30.

A live Web cast is available on www.nikecrossnationals.com beginning at 9:55 a.m.

Nike Cross Nationals is billed the only club team and individual national championship in high school cross country.

Also this weekend, area distance runners will compete in the West Regional Foot Locker championships at Mount SAC college in Walnut, Calif.