WALLA WALLA, Wash. – When the final horn sounds it has always been a team -- more like a pack, really -- effort from Whitman College's men's basketball team. Tuesday night at the Sherwood Athletics Center the alpha dog was Matt Mounier who drained four consecutive 3-pointers near the end of the first half to spark the Missionaries to a double-digit halftime lead and eventual 68-44 Northwest Conference triumph over visiting and 21st-ranked Whitworth University, snapping the Pirates' 16-game win streak.

The win moves the Missionaries (15-5, 9-2 NWC) to just one game behind Whitworth (17-3, 10-1) atop the league standings.

Once overcoming the first basket of the game, by the Pirates' Taylor Farnsworth, Whitman had already begun to establish dominance in first-half action. An 8-0 burst turned a skinny one-point lead into a growing nine-point advantage, 12-3, before the 15-minute mark of the opening half.,The lead teetered between nine and 12 points until late in half when Whitworth drew within six, 24-18.

Mounier, held scoreless up to that point, hammered home that this was going to be Whitman's night over the remaining minutes in the half. He dropped in his first 3-pointer to push the lead to nine then answered a pair of Pirates free throws with another trey off a Dominic Lippi assist. He hit another long-range bomb, after Adam Wilks hit only the second of two from the foul line for Whitworth, before hitting a fourth with 55 seconds left. A Pirates turnover put the ball in Mounier's hands again and he converted his free throw after completing a layup for yet another three-point play. George Valle answered with a trey for the Pirates at the buzzer, but Mounier's 15-point explosion created enough damage that the visitors simply weren't able to recover.

Clay Callahan's jumper coming out of the intermission kept the momentum tilted Whitman's way and Christian McDonald continued it with a jumper following a steal by Evan Martin. Whitworth whittled its deficit down to 14 a few minutes later but Philip Chircu, with nine second-half points, Jackson Clough with five, and six others with at least one basket took care of the remaining minutes as the M's out scored the Pirates 29-20 in the second half.

Whitman's eight-rebound advantage, 36-28, definitely aided its chances all night, but more importantly it allowed Whitworth to come down with only six offensive rebounds which produced only two second-chance points. The Pirates had such a difficult night from the field -- 28 percent -- that it hit only six baskets in each half.,

On the other hand, the M's walked off the court after a 46-percent night which included 11 three pointers, seven of which came in the first half.

Mounier (15 points), Clough (12) and Chircu (11) finished in double-figures for Whitman while McDonald added nine points along with six assists and a steal. Whitworth was paced by Kenny Love's 11 points and picked up 10 more from Matt Staudacher.

The Whitman men's victory completed a four-win sweep in four days as the Missionaries women downed No. 17 Whitworth in Tuesday's early game, and the Whitman men's and women's swim teams swept the Pirates Saturday afternoon.

A league game awaits the Missionaries men the next time they hit the court, Friday, as they travel to McMinnville, Oregon, to face off against host Linfield College (3-16, 1-9 NWC) at 8 p.m.