SPOKANE, Wash. – Needing a win to stay within hailing distance of Whitman at the top of the Northwest Conference men's basketball standings, Whitworth pulled out a 69-64 win on Tuesday night in the first of two annual Battle of Whits, despite playing most of the game without two injured starters.
Garrett Long scored 22 points for the 18th-ranked Pirates, who improved to 14-2 overall and 5-2 in the NWC. Guard Diego Jaques did not start for the Bucs and All-NWC forward Jake Holtz left the game after eight minutes of play.
The Blues (8-8, 6-1) saw their six-game winning streak come to an end.
"It was really good to see this team buy into the 'next man up' mentality tonight with us being down two starters," said Whitworth head coach Damion Jablonski.
Alex Pape's layup gave the Blues a 15-10 lead, their largest of the first half. Still trailing 21-17 with nine minutes left in the period, the Pirates used a 12-3 run to go up 29-24 on a jumper by Long, who also had the first basket of the run. His layup just before halftime gave the Bucs a 40-33 lead at the break. Long scored 13 of his points before halftime. Whitman made 48% of its first half shots, while the Bucs made 50% (14-28), including 5-8 from three-point range.
A four-minute scoreless stretch early in the second half cost Whitworth its halftime advantage. After a Long jumper gave the Pirates a 43-35 edge with 16:05 to play, Whitworth would not score again until a Ben Nyquist basket with 12:00 to play. In between Whitman scored 11 straight points, including 7 by Isaiah Amato, to go ahead 46-43. After making their three-pointers in the first half, the Pirates started 1-10 from beyond the arc in the second. The only make was a banked-in shot by Ty Edwards that gave the Bucs the lead back (48-46).
Another Amato basket put the Blues in front 55-54. Stephen Behil finally broke the cold stretch from distance with a long three that gave the Bucs a 57-55 lead with 3:22 to go. Nyquist hit a jumper one minute later to extend the advantage to 59-55. Behil's driving layup with 1:17 left made it 63-57 before Grant Hunt scored and was fouled. Emblematic of Whitman's struggles at the free throw line in this game, Hunt missed a chance to cut the margin to one possession when the free throw bounced out. Meanwhile, the Pirates went 6-6 from the free throw line in the final 33 seconds, including 4-4 by Long on two one and ones, to keep the Blues at-bay.
Whitworth won despite making only 30% (9-30) from the floor in the second half to finish the game 23-58 (39.7%) from the field. Long added five assists to his team-high scoring honors. Nyquist scored ten as the only other Pirate in double figures. Edwards finished with nine points, led the team with ten rebounds and dished four assists.
"Garrett was so tough and had to carry so much of the offensive load tonight," Jablonski said. "I'm also really proud of Ty, who gave us some key rebounds, played tough defense and did a lot of things that don't show up in the box score."
Amato scored a game-high 25 points for Whitman, but was the only one of his team in double figures. He added five boards, four assists and two steals. Hunt scored nine. The Blues made 45.6% (26-57) of their shots, but only 7-16 (43.8%) from the free throw line.
Whitworth will return to action on Friday night when the Pirates host Linfield College to close out the first half of the NWC schedule.