By: Cody Wright
Box Score PASADENA, Calif. – Eleven Whitworth players scored to lead the Pirate men's basketball team to an 87-44 victory over Caltech in a non-conference contest on Saturday night.
The Pirates improved to 4-0 on the season and outscored the Beavers (0-4) 46-18 in the second half.
Whitworth jumped out to a commanding 21-4 lead to start the game. Stephen Behil made his presence felt by hitting three three-pointers and grabbing five rebounds in the first six minutes of the game. Stuart Florescu made a jumper to cut the Pirate lead to 13 with 2:52 left in the half. Caltech scored at the buzzer to come within 41-26 at halftime. Whitworth finished the half shooting 48.3% (14-29 FG) from the floor and 45.5% from beyond the arc.
The halftime score would be as close as Caltech would get, as a Jake Holtz layup kicked off a 15-4 Pirate run to start the second half. Whitworth continued to build on the lead at the 12:22 mark, scoring in five straight possessions after Holtz put in another bucket. Dylan Westermeyer, Craig Mueller, and Finnegan Anderson all hit three-pointers off the bench in the closing minutes of the second half.
The Pirates shot a season-best 47.6% (10-21) from long range and 56.9% from the field. The Bucs controlled the glass and outrebounded the Beavers 51-26. 45 of Whitworth's 87 points came from the bench, 13 of which came from Holtz, a rare sight out of the starting lineup. Caltech finished the game shooting 29.7% from the floor.
Behil scored a game-high 16 points and added nine rebounds. Garrett Long put up 11 points, six rebounds and three steals, while Diego Jaques had a team high four assists. Mueller had seven points in seven minutes and Caden Bateman scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds.
Noah Hicks led Caltech with 12 points and Florescu scored 11 points and had eight rebounds.
The Pirates hit the court again on December 6th when they host Belhaven.
