Big victory for Whitworth men

Ross Nakamura spends so much time setting up his teammates that it leaves few moments to show off his own shooting touch.

The few moments all seemed to come around the same time Saturday night.

Nakamura scored 10 of his 19 points in the first 5 minutes of the second half, and that surge propelled Whitworth to an 80-78 victory over No. 21 Puget Sound in a Northwest Conference men’s basketball game at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

The victory was vital for the Pirates, who moved into a first-place tie with UPS atop the league standings.

Whitworth owns the head-to-head tiebreaker between the programs, however, so if both teams finish the regular season tied, Whitworth will earn the conference’s No. 1 seed – and a first-round bye – in the NWC playoffs.

“This was a big win,” said Nakamura, who scored 17 points after halftime. “We only have two games left, but we know if we lose we’re out of first place.”

Whitworth (17-6, 10-4 NWC) trailed 40-30 at halftime, but Nakamura buried a 17-foot jumper to start the half and then swished a 3-pointer on the Pirates’ next trip down the floor to cut their deficit to 40-35. Nakamura added another 3-pointer 1:30 later, and his 18-foot jumper gave Whitworth its first lead of the second half (46-45) with 15 minutes left.

“We weren’t scoring much, so I wanted to be aggressive,” Nakamura said. “I got some open looks and hit a couple shots, and that gave me some confidence.”

UPS (17-5, 10-4) regained the lead briefly and pushed its advantage to 58-53 following Jason Foster’s two free throws. Whitworth responded with a 9-2 spurt, though, and took the lead for good after Ryan Symes’ three-point play gave the Pirates a 62-60 edge.

Whitworth made eight free throws in the game’s final 63 seconds to thwart the Loggers’ rally in the waning minutes.

“Coach (Hayford) will have us in the gym again tomorrow, so there’s not much time for celebration,” Whitworth forward Colin Willemsen said. “That’ll put things back in perspective for us.”

Whitworth could have made a checklist of all the things it didn’t want to transpire in the first half – and then etched a mark next to each of them. Foster scored 17 points by halftime, the Pirates were outrebounded 21-14, and Whitworth made only 7 of 24 attempts (29 percent) from the floor to fall behind by 10 at intermission.

Symes scored 13 points in 13 minutes in the first half, but spent 7 minutes on the bench because of foul trouble.

Symes finished with 28 points for Whitworth, and Willemsen chipped in 20. Foster led UPS with 24 points.

•Jordan Gregg led five players in double figures with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting to lead Community Colleges of Spokane to a 90-50 rout of Columbia Basin in a NWAACC game at Spokane Falls Community College.

Bo Gregg had 19 points and Eric Beal added 15 for the Sasquatch (25-1, 12-0).

Ross Thoelke tallied a game-high 22 points to lead the Hawks (10-16, 3-10).

•After falling behind early, Eastern Utah came alive in the second half to edge North Idaho 64-61 in a Scenic West Athletic Conference game in Price, Utah.

Rafael Moreira tallied a team-high 10 points for the Eagles (14-12, 6-5).

Kerry Williams had 16 points and eight assists and David Johnson added 12 points to lead NIC (16-10, 2-9).