GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Whitworth University men's basketball team used a 55-point second half to defeat Southwestern 87-64 in a non-conference battle of Pirates on Monday night.
The Whitworth Pirates grabbed their seventh straight win to open the season, while the Southwestern Pirates suffered their eighth straight loss.
A Stephen Behil three-pointer put the Pirates up 9-4 early, but Southwestern clawed back and took a 14-11 lead with 12:38 to go in the half. The teams traded baskets for the next nine minutes of action, including five ties and four lead changes. A Shobby Enakpene layup gave the Pirates (SW) a 29-27 lead with 3:06 to play in the first half. The next possession, Dylan Westermeyer nailed a three-pointer and Whitworth took a lead they would not give away. After two Enakpene free-throws, the Pirates (WTW) went to halftime up 32-31.
Whitworth shot 45.2% from the field in the first half. Southwestern shot 40.7% from the field and outrebounded the Pirates 19-13. Garrett Long led Whitworth with 9 points while Jake Holtz and Ty Edwards each had four at the break.
The Pirates (WTW) penetrated the Southwestern zone defense and created good shots to start the second half. Behil hit a three-pointer and Jake Holtz made a jumper to give the Bucs a 41-36 lead at the 17:18 mark. After a timeout, the Whitworth offense kicked into gear as a Long three-point play capped off a 13-4 run to extend the lead. Another Long jumper pushed the score to 60-43 with 10:59 to play.
A minute later, Colton Looney came into the game and put on a show. From the 8:38 mark to 4:40 to play, Looney hit five three-point baskets in a row enroute to a solo 15-9 Pirate run. After a bucket by Carson Talbert, Looney made his sixth three-pointer in as many attempts to push Whitworth ahead 80-56 with just under four minutes to go. Craig Mueller made two put-back layups before Looney knocked down his seventh shot from beyond the arc of the half to close the game. The Bucs outscored Southwestern 55-33 in the second half.
Whitworth finished the game shooting 52.9% from the field and a season-high 51.9% from long range (14-27 3PT). Southwestern shot 41.5% from the field but struggled to get three-pointers to fall, making just three of 21 attempts. The rebound battle finished deadlocked at 31.
The Pirates' (WTW) 45 bench points propelled them to victory, including a season-high 21 points from Looney on seven of eight three-point field goals. Long finished with 16 points and Ben Nyquist scored 11 points along with a team-high seven rebounds.
Brock Luechtefeld was the only Southwestern Pirate in double figures with 19 points and eight rebounds. Aedan Lewis scored nine points and had two steals.
The Whitworth men visit Schreiner on Wednesday at 3:00 PM PST.
