PORTLAND, Ore. – George Valle scored a season-high 22 points to lead visiting Whitworth to a 62-47 win at Lewis & Clark in a Northwest Conference men's basketball game on Saturday night.

Whitworth earned a sweep of its NWC-opening road trip and improved to 9-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference with its eighth straight victory.  The Pioneers fell to 5-6, 0-2.

Valle made 10 of 18 shots from the field and also led the team with eight rebounds.

"It was great to see George be aggressive and take advantage of his versatility tonight" said head coach Matt Logie.  "We take pride as a team in taking what the defense gives and George led the way for our guys tonight."

Kenny Love hit two early three-pointers and Valle made a couple of inside baskets to help the Pirates jump out to a 12-4 lead.  Adam Wilks' steal and breakaway layup extended the Whitworth advantage to 21-10.  An 8-0 run, capped by Matt Staudacher's jumper, advanced the lead to 31-14 late in the half.  Valle's final basket of the half gave the Pirates their 38-18 lead at the break.

Whitworth shot 50% (17-34) from the field in the first half and held Lewis & Clark to only 30% (7-23). 

"I think that first half was our best overall half of the season," Logie said.  "But we really played defense at a high level with great intensity all game tonight."

But the Pirates cooled off in the second half to only 33% (8-24) from the field.  That allowed the Pioneers to creep back into the game.  After Whitworth opened its largest lead of the contest (44-22) following Love's jumper, Lewis & Clark went on to cut the margin to 51-39 on Carl Appleton's jumper with 5:19 to play.  But Whitworth scored the next six points, including four by Valle, to retake control.

Love finished with 13 points and Christian Jurlina added ten points and five assists for Whitworth. 

Appleton led Lewis & Clark with a double-double of 20 points and 13 rebounds.  Serg Ovchinnikov added 13 points, nine of which came in the second half.  However the Pioneers were held to their second-lowest point total of the season.

Whitworth will return to action on Tuesday night when the Pirates host Whitman College in their NWC home opener at 8:00 pm.