Box Score SPOKANE, Wash. – Dominating the game on both ends of the floor Whitworth University defeated visiting Pacific Lutheran 78-59 in a Northwest Conference men's basketball game on Saturday night.
The Pirates shot 58% (30-52) from the field, including 58% (11-19) from three point range, and held PLU to only 34% from the floor to improve to 15-2 overall and 8-0 in the NWC. It was Whitworth's 14th win in a row.
About the only thing that didn't go well for the Bucs was turnover margin. Whitworth committed 16 giveaways while PLU only had five.
"Offensively we did some nice things tonight, but we need to clean up our turnovers," said Pirate head coach Matt Logie. "Defensively our athleticism allowed us to contest a lot of shots and rebound on a high level."
PLU (5-11, 3-4) never led and struggled to get points in the early going as Whitworth took a 9-0 lead just over five minutes into the first half. George Valle had five of those early points. The Lutes got back to within 11-7 after two three-pointers by Brandon Lester. But the Pirates scored the next eight points, including five from Derek Isaak, to open a 19-7 advantage. Whitworth stretched the lead to as many as 14 points (27-13) with less than five minutes left in the first half and took a 35-22 lead into the locker rooms.
Whitworth quickly stretched the lead to 20 points early in the second half when Taylor Farnsworth's three-point play made the score 45-25. Whitworth steadily pulled away, opening a 66-36 lead on a jumper by Matt Staudacher. PLU was able to whittle the lead to under 20 points in the final three minutes, thanks in-part to consecutive three-pointers by Kyle Sawtell.
Isaak came off of the bench for a career-high 18 points to lead the Pirates. He went 4-5 from three-point range. His performance came only one week after his previous career-high of 16 points at Pacific (Ore.) on January 16th.
"Derek is a knock-down shooter," Logie said. "The guys did a nice job of finding him and he's really been coming on in conference play. He's a gamer."
Kenny Love scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half, while Farnsworth tallied 10 of his 12 points after halftime. Christian Jurlina led Whitworth with nine rebounds as the Pirates finished with a 43-21 edge on the boards.
Lester led PLU with 22 points, including 5-9 shooting from three-point range. He was the only PLU player in double figures. Bryce Miller led the Lutes with five rebounds.
Whitworth holds a two-game lead over Whitman and Lewis & Clark (both 6-2 in the NWC) at the halfway point of the conference schedule. The Pirates will open the second half of the league schedule at home next weekend against Lewis & Clark (Friday) and Willamette (Saturday).
