SPOKANE, Wash. -- Lewis & Clark started the 2015-16 Northwest Conference schedule where it left off last season, playing the season opener at the Whitworth Fieldhouse. Sparked by an 18-0 run over a six-minute span, the home team Pirates beat Lewis & Clark 76-64 on Friday night.

The game was a rematch of last season's NWC Championship that Whitworth won 69-58. Whitworth entered this game as the No. 2 team in the latest D3Hoops.com poll.

After trailing 37-35 at halftime, the Pioneers scored 12 of the second half's first 15 points to take a 47-40 lead 2:30 into the period. Alex Jones, who left the game shortly after the opening tip with an ankle injury, returned to start the second half and hit two 3-pointers to go with one from Jason Luhnow and a three-point play from Markel Leonard, giving the Pios the seven-point edge.

Whitworth answered by getting points from six different players starting at the 17:20 mark to build a 58-47 lead with 10:19 remaining, keeping the Pios without a field goal for over six minutes.

"There's a reason why they're No. 2 in America," said Lewis & Clark head coach Dinari Foreman. "Whitworth is really, really good and we are really good, and we needed to be really, really good tonight."

"The one thing we were proud of is we know we lost by 12, but if we just shot 80 percent from the free-throw line, like we're very capable, and make some easy lay-ups that we missed, we could have won that game," said junior guard Cory Coombe.

Lewis & Clark went 8 of 20 from the free-throw line, while the Pirates made 16 of 18. Whitworth only missed one in the final 15 minutes. Both teams took care of the ball, combining for 15 turnovers with the Pioneers committing nine.

With statistical categories like points in the paint and points off turnovers fairly even, Whitworth's better shooting performance set them apart. In addition to the advantage in free throws, Whitworth shot 46 percent from the field compared to Lewis & Clark's 37 percent. The Pirates shot better from 3-point range too, 35 to 29 percent.

Coombe, who scored on high-arching shots while also getting fouled on back-to-back drives to the basket in the late second half, led Lewis & Clark with 13 points in a reserve role. Leonard had 11 points, matching his season high, to go with four assists.

"The first one, I was just mad that I gave up a three on the possession before so i sprinted to the corner and Markel [Leonard] threw it ahead, and I saw the lane open so I went to the hoop. The big guy was coming over so I floated it over him and got the call," said Coombe. "The second one, I knew we needed a quick bucket and I saw the left hand open, so I took it and got to the hoop. I wanted to be aggressive because we needed quick buckets to get back in the game."

After Luhnow made a free throw with 6:33 left in the second half, the Pios were within eight points of Whitworth, the closest Lewis & Clark got the rest of the game.

Christian Jurlina led all scorers with 27 points, scoring the most for the Pirates, who put four players into double figures. He shot 10 of 15 from the field including 2 of 3 from 3-point range. Matt Staudacher made both of his 3-point tries to score 17 points, Kyle Roach had 13 of Whitworth's 17 bench points and George Valle scored 11 points on 3 of 9 shooting. Roach also had a team-high nine rebounds.

Lewis & Clark outscored Whitworth off the bench 27-17, getting five points and 10 rebounds in 19 minutes from returning Second-Team All-NWC selection CJ Appleton, who played in his first game of the season.

Cannen Roberson scored nine points and had seven rebounds, while Luhnow put in seven points and pulled down eight rebounds, the latter nearly a season high. The two combined to shoot 6 of 18 overall and 3 of 11 from 3-point range, below their season averages of nearly 38 percent from three this season.

The Pioneers head to Walla Walla, Wash. to face Whitman on Saturday night. The game starts at 6 p.m., and is a rematch of last year's NWC semifinal, which Lewis & Clark won 84-73.

Other Northwest Conference Scores - Friday

Whitman 89, Linfield 53
Pacific 72, Willamette 56
Puget Sound 98, George Fox 75