Box Score FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Kenny Love scored 25 points, but it was the contributions of two players off of the bench that helped visiting Whitworth rally for a 79-66 Northwest Conference men's basketball win at Pacific University on Friday night.
Derek Isaak had 16 points and Ekow Nottinson-Nyaaku added 12 off of the bench, both setting career highs, to help the Pirates improve to 12-2 overall and 5-0 in the NWC with their 11th straight victory.
"We got great contribution from the bench tonight and we needed it with a couple of our key reserves battling injuries," said head coach Matt Logie. "But Ekow and Derek really gave us a spark offensively and defensively."
Three different players scored 16 points for Pacific (6-8, 1-4).
The Boxers jumped out to an early 14-8 lead as Bobby Ahern hit two early three-pointers. Pacific held that lead until Isaak hit a pair of free throws to put the Pirates ahead 26-24. The teams traded the lead three more times before the end of the half before Pacific took a 39-36 lead into halftime on a three-pointer by Mitch Wettig. The Boxers shot 51.6% (16-31) from the field in the first half and held the Pirates to 37.9% (11-29). But Whitworth stayed close by making 11-13 from the free throw line.
The teams traded leads seven times over the first ten minutes of the second half. Pacific went ahead 53-51 on a basket by Daniel Gunther with 12:10 to play. But it would be the last lead of the game for the Boxers as Whitworth went on a quick 7-0 run to go up 58-53 on Isaak's three-pointer. The Pirates would steadily pull away from Pacific over the final ten minutes, eventually opening up a lead of 15 points (76-61) with just under three minutes to play.
Love was 6-10 from the field and made one three-pointer to finish one point off of his career-high set last week. But he did most of his damage at the free throw line as the Boxers had trouble stopping his penetration to the basket. He was 12-13 at the charity stripe. Love has averaged 20 points over his last four games.
"You could see Kenny really coming on heading into conference play," Logie said. "Now he's just showing all the things he's capable of. He can score in a lot of creative ways."
Christian Jurlina and Matt Staudacher each scored ten points to give Whitworth five players in double figures. The Pirates improved to 48% in the second half and finished the game 8-17 (47%) from three-point range, led by Isaak's 4-4 performance from beyond the arc.
Wettig, Ahern and Skyler Burgess were the three Boxers in double figures. Wettig finished with a double-double as he grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. The Pirates held Pacific to only 33% from the field in the decisive second half.
Whitworth will close out its trip to Oregon with a game at George Fox on Saturday at 6:00 pm.
