SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth men's basketball squad put on an impressive defensive display on Friday night at Whitworth fieldhouse, beating Northwest Conference west-side foe University of Puget Sound 88-61.
The Loggers (10-6 overall, 5-2 NWC) came into the game with the conference's leading scoring defense, but it was the Pirates' (13-3, 7-0 NWC) that dominated that end of the floor with 20 forced turnovers and 15 field goals allowed.
Puget Sound battled early with Beckett Turner's layup putting the Loggers up 14-13 with 12:53 left in the first half. Stephen Behil followed with a jumper on the next possession and the Bucs never trailed again. Nate Krohn hit a three-pointer at the 11:25 mark that kicked off a 30-3 Whitworth run over the next nine minutes of action. The Pirates made 12 of 18 shots during that stretch, including six from beyond the arc, and seven different Bucs scored, led by Colton Looney with nine points. On the defensive end, PS made just one of its 13 shot attempts and turned the ball over six times. Looney's three-pointer capped off the run and put the Pirates up 47-19 with 2:30 to play in the half. Caden Bateman's layup with six seconds on the clock sent Whitworth into the locker rooms with a 54-23 lead.
The Bucs shot 59.5% in the first half and made seven of 12 (58.3%) shots from beyond the arc. The Loggers made just five field goals (5-25, 20%) and scored 11 of their 23 points from the free throw line. Looney led the offense with 11 points while Krohn and Behil added eight.
Puget Sound's offense appeared to get going early in the second half, outscoring the Bucs 10-5 in the first four minutes. Kobe Parlin and Looney followed with back-to-back threes to push the Whitworth advantage back out to 30 (64-34). Ben Nyquist helped the Pirates maintain their sizeable lead with seven steals in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Nyquist's trip to the free throw line with 11:58 remaining gave the Pirates their largest lead of the game 68-36. Despite PS outscoring Whitworth 37-35 in the second half, the Loggers could only trim the deficit to 24.
The Pirates shot 51.5% (34-66) from the field and 53.8% (14-26) from the three-point line. Defensively, the Bucs forced 20 turnovers, scored 22 points off those turnovers, and held the Loggers to 26.8% (15-56) shooting.
Nyquist finished his day with nine points, five assists and nine steals, the most by any player in the NWC this season and a top performance in all of Div. III. Looney led all scorers with 22 points and shot 6-9 from three-point range. Parlin added 14 points, Bateman had 10 and Behil led with nine rebounds.
Trevon Hamilton was the only Logger in double figures with 11. Hugo Rutherfurd scored eight points and grabbed five boards, helping PS finish with a 43-38 advantage on the glass. The Loggers had an efficient night at the free throw line, making 23 of 28 attempts.
Whitworth will look to extend its winning streak to nine tomorrow night against visiting Pacific Lutheran at 5:00pm.
