Pirates enter new territory
Whitworth University’s top two players, seniors Ryan Symes and Colin Willemsen, lived up to all expectations at the Fieldhouse Saturday night, combining for 39 points and 15 rebounds in the Pirates’ win over Occidental in the second round of the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament.
But it was the contributions of teammates David Riley and Ross Nakamura that will most likely live longest in the memories of the 1,680 who were on hand to watch the Bucs turn back the Tigers 83-75 and advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time as an NCAA school.
Riley, a freshman shooting guard, knocked down 5 of 8 3-pointers and scored 19 points, while Nakamura, a junior point guard, played through some first-half foul trouble to score 11 points, bury a couple of huge second-half 3-pointers and hand out eight assists.
With the win, the Northwest Conference-champion Pirates (22-6) earned the right to face Wheaton (21-7) in a third-round game Friday at a four-team sectional site still to be determined. Wherever they land, the Bucs expect to arrive with a boatload of momentum after overcoming a 38-33 halftime deficit to defeat Occidental (21-6), a Los Angeles-based school that won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
“I told our players after the game that Whitworth has never had an NCAA team in the Sweet Sixteen,” Pirates coach Jim Hayford said. “That mean’s they’ve taken the program further than anyone ever has, and that’s a heck of an accomplishment.”
There was certainly no shortage of heroes for the Bucs on this night. Symes, the NWC’s player of the year, finished with a game-high 24 points and Willemsen added 15 points and a team-best eight rebounds – along with doing a splendid job of defending the Tigers’ scoring leader Connor Whitman throughout much of the game.
“They’ve got a heady team,” Occidental coach Brian Newhall said of the Pirates, who shot 51 percent (26 of 51) from the field and made 11 of 22 3-pointers. “Look at all five of their players that played the majority of minutes – they’re all good, smart, efficient players, which makes for a fun, sound team.
“We played one of our best halves of the season in the first half, and it still wasn’t enough to beat them.”
The Tigers got 23 points from Whitman, the SCIAC’s player of the year, but the senior shooting guard – after scoring 13 in the first 9 1/2 minutes of the game – missed his next 12 shots in the face of some tough defense and finished 6 for 23 from the field.
“Colin did a nice job on him after that hot start he had,” Hayford said of Whitman, who was 5 for 15 on 3-pointers. “We thought, coming in, if we could contain him, they might not have enough points on the rest of their roster to beat us.”
Still, the Pirates needed a big second-half from Nakamura to take control of the game. The first-year junior college transfer, after going scoreless in the first half, drained a couple of huge 3-pointers in the second and also completed a three-point play after being fouled on an acrobatic drive.
“We call him ‘Knock-em-down Nakamura’ for a reason,” Hayford said. “He stepped up again and hit some big shorts for us in that second half.”
Whitworth was down by five at halftime, despite scoring the games first seven points, making eight of its first 12 field-goal tries and shooting 52 percent (13 of 25) in the opening period. The Pirates, after opening up a 27-20 lead about 11 1/2 minutes into the game, lost Nakamura shortly thereafter when he picked up his second foul and watched the rest of the half on the bench.
With Nakamura sidelined, the Bucs’ half-court offense lost much of its fluidity, and Occidental took advantage of the situation to close the period with an 18-6 run that including scoring contributions from five different players.
“We were kind of dead in the water there, with Ross in foul trouble,” Hayford said. “It just shows how good and efficient a player he is, and how much he means to our team.”
Symes tossed in 15 first-half points for Whitworth, while teammate David Riley, a freshman forward, added 12 on 4-for-4 shooting on 3-pointers. Whitman knocked down three 3-pointers for Occidental and matched Symes’ first-half point total.
Hayford said he expects to hear today or early Monday morning where his team will be sent for their next game.