COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – For the second time in just over a week Colorado College handed Whitworth a painful men's basketball defeat, this time by an 81-65 margin on Sunday afternoon in the finale of the Tigers' Thanksgiving Invitational.

Senior post Chris Lesnansky led Colorado College to a 4-0 start to the season by putting up a game-high 25 points on 8-12 shooting from the field and 9-10 from the free throw line.  CC had defeated Whitworth 65-60 in the Pirates' Quality Inn Oakwood Classic last Saturday.

Senior Colton McCargar led the 16th-ranked Bucs (3-2) with 17 points, 12 of which came in the second half.

It didn't take the Tigers long to build a double-digit lead.  Trailing 9-4 in the early going, Colorado College put together a 22-4 run to open a 26-13 lead halfway through the first period.  Justin Bernardino had a pair of three-pointers during that run.  Whitworth cut the lead to 27-20 following a layup by Austin Wood, but the Tigers would take a 40-28 advantage into halftime.  Lesnansky had 12 points in the opening half.

Whitworth shot only 27% in the first half and was outrebounded 22-16.

The Pirates got within six points on two occasions in the second half, the final time on a basket by Adam Wilks that cut the lead to 50-44 with 13:13 to go.  But Ryan Milne and Jake Tramutolo answered with back-to-back threes that extended the lead back to 56-44 and the Tigers led by double digits most of the rest of the game.  Colorado College took its largest lead at 74-56 on Lesnansky's final basket with just over four minutes to play.

Colorado College shot 51% from the field in the game, 56% in the second half to help keep the Pirates at bay.  Milne added 15 points and six assists for the Tigers.

McCargar was the only Pirate in double figures in scoring.  Taylor Farnsworth grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.

Whitworth will return to action next Saturday when the Pirates host UC Santa Cruz (2-4) at 8:00 pm.