Defense, once a Whitworth staple, lets down Bucs

The past three years, the underappreciated aspect of Whitworth College’s success was its defense. Pressure out front and strength inside helped the Pirates men win 63 basketball games in the span.

But this year’s Pirates squad has yet to find its defensive identity, and it showed Friday night in an 83-79 loss to Lewis & Clark before 850 at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

It was especially evident in the opening half. That’s when the Pioneers, who came in shooting 39.5 percent overall from the field and 33 percent beyond the 3-point arc, got a multitude of open looks, hit 70 percent of them, including 8 of 13 long-range shots, and built a 10-point edge.

Though they cooled off after halftime, the Pioneers still finished hitting 57 percent from the floor, including 15 of their 33 3-point shots.

The number of shots wasn’t a surprise, however. Lewis & Clark (6-6 overall and 2-2 in Northwest Conference play) is sixth in the NCAA Division III in 3-pointers made at 11.1 per game. And the Pirates came in allowing their opponents to shoot nearly 50 percent from the field, so LC’s game plan was to fire away.

“That’s what we have to do,” LC coach Bob Gaillard said of the Pioneers long-range attack. “We don’t rebound very well and we don’t play defense like we should, so we have to take the chance and shoot it.”

And they kept taking chances, even when they had a 12-point lead with 1 minute, 38 seconds left. The Pioneers kept firing, started to miss – especially from the free-throw line and Whitworth, behind Bryan Williams and Jon Young, rallied back. When Williams drained his fourth 3-pointer of the night with 23 seconds left, Whitworth was within 82-79.

Nate Kabanuck missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Whits had a chance to tie. Out of timeouts, Williams rushed a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left, but Young threw the rebound off a Pioneer and Whitworth had another shot. When LC called time, the Pirates were able to set up a good look for Williams, but the feed was high, he had to reset his feet to shoot and his 3-pointer was long.

Williams finished with 17 points while Young, who hit three 3-pointers, had 13. But it was junior college transfer George Tucker who kept the Pirates (5-8, 1-4 NWC and losers of four straight for the first time in coach Jim Hayford’s four-year tenure) close after halftime.

Attacking from the high post, the 6-foot-3 Tucker was 10 of 15 from the floor and finished with a season-high 21 points. He also added nine rebounds, six of them offensively as the Pirates had 20 of those, en route to a 39-30 edge on the glass.

But Ryan Wells’ 23 points (6 of 10 from 3), and Mark Robinowitz’s 18 (5 of 12 from 3, including three in a row to blunt a Pirates comeback midway through the second half) were enough to overcome the rebounding deficit.

Lewis & Clark 83, Whitworth 79

Lewis & Clark (6-6, 2-2 NWC) – Wells 8-12 1-3 23; Robinowitz 5-12 3-3 18; Magnuson 6-10 4-4 16; Jones 5-9 2-2 14; Merino 3-4 0-0 7; Kirkham 1-1 2-2 5; Winnie 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-49 12-15 83.

Whitworth (5-8, 1-3 NWC) – Tucker 10-15 1-2 21; Williams 6-18 1-4 17; Young 5-10 0-1 13; Pecht 4-10 0-0 10; Simons 1-2 4-4 7; Jones 1-8 2-2 4; Larkin 2-5 0-2 4; Fletcher 1-1 0-0 3; Taylor 0-1 0-0 0; Wyatt 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-71 8-15 79.

Halftime–Lewis & Clark 49, Whitworth 39. 3-point goals – Lewis & Clark 15-33 (Wells 6-10; Robinowitz 5-12; Jones 2-5; Kirkham 1-1; Merino 1-2; Winnie 0-1; Magnuson 0-2), Whitworth 11-33 (Williams 4-12; Young 3-8; Pecht 2-4; Fletcher 1-1; Simons 1-1; Taylor 0-1;Wyatt 0-1; Jones 0-5). Fouled out – Merino. Rebounds – Lewis & Clark 30 (Magnuson 14), Whitworth 39 (Tucker 9). Assists – Lewis & Clark 14 (Merino 5; Jones 5), Whitworth 12 (Williams 4). Total fouls – Lewis & Clark 17, Whitworth 13. A-850.

Eastern Utah 82, NIC 72

Eastern Utah (14-5, 5-3 SWAC) beat North Idaho (9-11, 1-7 SWAC) Friday night at Price, Utah.

Details were not available.