SPOKANE, Wash – The Whitworth Pirates suffered a hard-fought 92-90 loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor in a non-conference men's basketball battle on Saturday evening at Whitworth Fieldhouse.
The Crusaders (4-3) scored 60 points on 54.3% shooting in the second half to erase a 17-point deficit and hand the Pirates (4-1) their first loss of the season.
Whitworth started the game hot and made eight of its first nine field goals, eventually grabbing a 21-9 lead following a fastbreak layup from Ty Edwards at the 14:38 mark. Whitworth maintained the advantage as both teams traded runs midway through the period. With three minutes to play in the half, UMHB trimmed the lead to 34-30 with Zach Engels' layup. Led by two long distance shots from Colton Looney and another from Stephen Behil, the Pirates responded and closed the half on an 11-2 run, taking a 45-32 lead into the break.
Whitworth shot 53.1% in the first period and assisted on 14 of 17 made field goals. UMHB made just one of 18 three-point attempts but scored 14 second chance points on 13 offensive rebounds. Looney led all players with 15 points in the first half.
Looney picked up where he left off and gave Whitworth its largest lead of the game at 51-34 after scoring the first six Whitworth points of the second frame. After a poor shooting first half, the Crusaders flipped the script and stormed back behind six made three-pointers in the first six minutes of play. A pair of free throws tied the game at 58 and kicked off a 16-4 UMHB run that put the Crusaders up 73-72 with under 10 minutes to play.
The UMHB lead stood at 12 with four minutes to go, but Whitworth chipped away. Edwards cut the deficit to five with a jumper and a pair of free throws from Ben Nyquist trimmed it to three with just over a minute left on the clock. Whitworth got a vital defensive stop and had a chance to tie with under 20 seconds left. Nyquist drove to the hoop and couldn't get his layup to fall. Whitworth was forced to foul, and the Crusaders iced the game with free throws.
The Pirates shot a season-high 50.8% (33-65) from the field and made 11 three-pointers on 31 attempts (35.5%). UMHB shot 41.9% (31-74) and made nine of 32 three-point attempts (28.1%), eight of them coming in the second half. The Crusaders dominated the rebound battle 50-36, grabbing 22 of them at the offensive end.
Looney led the Pirates with 23 points on 8-14 shooting. Nyquist posted 20 points, six assists and three steals. Behil put up 19 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Five players scored in double figures to lead UMHB. Hudson Johnson led all scorers with 25 points and Lawrence added 21. Grant Jessen scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds.
The Whitworth men host Belhaven on Monday at 6:00pm.
