SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth University clamped down defensively on visiting Linfield in the first half, but then had to hold on for a 67-58 win over the Wildcats in a Northwest Conference men's basketball game on Friday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
The first place Pirates improved to 17-4 overall and 11-1 in the NWC while Linfield dropped to 7-11, 5-5.
Whitworth never trailed and the game was tied only once at 2-2. The Wildcats had trouble scoring against the Pirates' league-leading defense, missing 14 of their first 17 shots of the contest. A 12-2 run allowed Whitworth to open a 20-9 lead on Stephen Behil's three-pointer with eight minutes left in the first half. Behil's layup increased the margin to 26-12 five minutes later. At that point the Wildcats had only made 4 of 25 shots (16%). Linfield closed the first half with some momentum, making three of their last five shots to get within 33-21 at the break. Behil had nine first half points, while Garrett Callsen had nearly half (10) of the Wildcats' tally.
Linfield took the small amount of momentum into the second half and began to chip away at the lead. Logan Morrill's layup with eight minutes left trimmed the margin to 49-43 and Dayton Magana's three-pointer with five minutes left cut it to 53-48. After the Wildcats had pulled within 60-56 with 2:26 to go, Ben Nyquist hit four straight free throws to help keep the visitor's at-bay. Caden Bateman also scored nine of his 18 points over the game's final seven minutes to lift the Pirates. His basket with 1:30 to go increased Whitworth's lead back to 10 points (66-56).
After making only 23% of their shots in the first half, the visiting Wildcats made 50% (13-26) after halftime to hang right with the Bucs.
Bateman, the Pirate center, posted a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds, matching the point total of Linfield's big man Callsen.
In addition to Bateman, three other Bucs reached double figures. Behil had 14, Nate Krohn scored a career-high 12 off the bench and Nyquist finished with 11. Nyquist added seven boards, five assists and four steals in a box-score stuffing effort.
Whitworth finished the game 24-58 (41%) from the field and only 3-14 (21%) from beyond the arc. The Pirates enjoyed a 43-30 edge in rebounding.
Nalu Vargas added 11 points for the Wildcats.
Whitworth will close out its regular season home schedule next weekend by hosting Lewis & Clark (Friday) and George Fox (Saturday).
