Whitworth stifles No. 22 Lewis & Clark

Whitworth played its first home game of the season Friday night, but that hardly means the Pirates weren’t already in midseason form.

After playing their first 10 games on the road, the Pirates beat up on 22nd-ranked Lewis & Clark and cruised to a 64-33 rout in a Northwest Conference men’s basketball game.

Ryan Symes led all scorers with 17 points, but the Pirates’ most noteworthy performances had nothing to do with shooting the ball.

Whitworth (8-3, 2-1 NWC) held the Pioneers to 12-of-46 shooting (26 percent) and also overwhelmed LC (7-4, 1-2) with 17 offensive rebounds compared to the Pioneers’ five.

“We’re a bigger team than them, and we focused on outrebounding them because that was an area we can beat them,” Pirates guard Ross Nakamura said. “That’s a huge reason why we won the game. They weren’t making their shots for some reason, and that made it easier for us.”

Whitworth neutralized the Pioneers’ two leading scorers, Mark Robinowitz and Tyson Papenfuss, and consequently stifled an LC team that entered the game averaging 82.5 points per contest.

Robinowitz, who made eight 3-pointers in the Pioneers’ loss against Pacific Lutheran last Saturday and shared the team lead with Papenfuss averaging 15 points a game, finished with three points in 23 minutes. Papenfuss played 24 minutes but didn’t score.

“It was great team defense,” Pirates coach Jim Hayford said. “The guys bought into the defensive plan. … I’ve got to give it to the guys. They took note of what we were trying to accomplish.”

Lewis & Clark made only 7 of 22 attempts from the field in the first half and was plagued by 10 turnovers. Whitworth’s shooting wasn’t much better (11 of 33), but the Pirates turned LC’s miscues into 11 points to help construct a 24-16 halftime lead.

Whitworth reeled off 11 consecutive points in the first half to take a 16-9 lead and held the Pioneers scoreless for 6 minutes during that span.

Nate Montgomery tallied 11 points and eight rebounds for Whitworth, and Colin Willemsen contributed nine points and 12 rebounds.

Women

Kimberly Kittell scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Lewis & Clark to a 70-55 NWC victory at Whitworth.

The Pioneers cruised to the win after outscoring the Pirates 35-17 in the first half. Allison Farr added 17 points for Lewis & Clark.

Natalie Orrell had a team-high 13 points for Whitworth, which fell to 7-5 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.

The Pioneers improved to 6-6, 2-1.