SPOKANE, Wash. – All three of Whitworth's All-Northwest Conference honorees scored in double figures to lead the 2nd-seeded Pirates to an 80-72 win over 3rd-seeded Pacific Lutheran in the semifinals of the Northwest Conference men's basketball tournament on Thursday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
Because 4th-seeded Whitman upset top-seeded Linfield 82-79 in the other semifinal, Whitworth (21-4) will host the Blues (12-13) in the NWC Tournament Championship on Saturday at 7:00 pm.
PLU (18-8), co-champions in the NWC during the regular season, must hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament when the field is announced on Monday morning.
The Pirates used a strong first half to build a big lead that proved crucial toward the end of the game. Garrett Paxton, named a second team All-NWC honoree earlier in the day, scored 14 of his 17 points in the opening half. He made two three-pointers and scored eight points to open the game, giving Whitworth an 8-0 lead. The Pirates would never trail. PLU pulled within 23-20 on a layup by Jack Williams, but Rowan Anderson drained a three-pointer to start a 10-3 run, that was capped by Liam Fitzgerald's trey to extend the margin to 33-23. Paxton hit back-to-back three's again late in the half give the Pirates a 43-29 lead and another Fitzgerald three-pointer gave Whitworth its largest lead of the game at 46-31 with 38 seconds left. Seth Hall, the 2022 NWC Player of the Year, gave a preview of the second half when he pulled up in the paint to make the halftime score 46-33. Whitworth made 58% from the floor in the first half, 57% (8-14) from beyond the arc.
The Pirates maintained a double-digit lead over the first seven minutes of the second half and a Jake Holtz layup matched Whitworth's largest lead at 56-41. But then the Pirates hit a dry spell as PLU made stops on eight of the next nine possessions. Hall's three-pointer pulled the Lutes within 56-46 and his three-point play trimmed the margin to 58-51 with 8:13 still to play. Hall hit a pull-up jumper to cut the deficit to 66-60 with 3:49 left in the game. After an exchange of points, Paxton hit his final three-pointer to lift Whitworth back to a nine-point lead (71-62) with under three minutes to go.
Hall made a pair of three throws to get the margin down to 71-66, the closest since midway through the first half, with 1:57 left. JT McDermott, named first team All-NWC earlier today, hit a short jumper in the paint to give Whitworth a three-possession lead with 1:32 to play. McDermott and Rowan Anderson combined to go 7-8 at the free throw line in the final 62 seconds to keep PLU at-bay.
Paxton finished 5-9 from beyond the arc for his team-high 17 points. Miguel Lopez, another second team All-NWC selection for the Pirates, added 12 points and six rebounds. McDermott scored seven of his 11 points in the second half and led Whitworth with six assists. The Pirates finished the game with 19 assists on 29 baskets and ended 29-58 (50%) from the floor. Whitworth cooled off from three-point range in the second period, going 1-8.
In addition to the three leading scorers, the Pirates had a 24-5 advantage in points off the bench, eight points each from Jerry Twenge, Holtz and Jojo Anderson.
Hall scored 23 of his game-high 27 points after halftime to lead PLU. He also had six rebounds and three assists. Sean McCurdy contributed 15 points and six boards, while Brandin Riedel added 12 points. Sam Noland had 11 points. The Lutes were missing first team honoree Jordan Thomas in the game.
Whitworth will shoot for its 14th NWC tournament championship on Saturday, in its 24th conference tournament appearance. The Pirates are now 29-10 all-time in the NWC tournament. Whitworth and Whitman have met in the last four NWC tournament championship games, and six times overall. The teams are 3-3 against one another in those games.