Jan. 10 NWC Men’s Basketball Wrap (Stories provided by host SID)

Whitworth 85, at Pacific Lutheran 73

Tacoma, Wash. -- The Whitworth Pirates added to the best start in school history, defeating the Pacific Lutheran Lutes, 85-73, in a Northwest Conference men’s basketball game Friday night at Olson Auditorium. 

The Pirates, ranked No. 11 in the latest d3hoops.com poll, improve to 3-0 in NWC play and 12-0 overall.  The Lutes fall to 1-2 in the NWC and 4-8 overall. 

The Pirates jumped out to a 20-1 lead and later held a 67-35 lead with 10:33 remaining in the game.  The Lutes went on a 29-8 run to close the gap to 75-64 with 3:03 remaining, but it was not enough as the Pirates held the Lutes off, outscoring PLU 10-9 to end the game. 

Whitworth shot a blistering 58 percent for the game, 54.5 percent on 3-point shots.  PLU shot 41.4 percent, 11.1 percent on their 3-point attempts. 

Chase Williams and Bryan Depew scored 24 points each to lead Whitworth, while Neil Mendez countered with 24 for PLU. 

The Lutes return to action Saturday, hosting Whitman at 8 p.m. Whitworth travels across town to play at Puget Sound at 8 p.m. Saturday.

At Willamette 87, Linfield 67

Salem, Ore. -- Senior point guard Ryan Hepp had game-highs of 24 points and six assists Saturday as Willamette remained undefeated in Northwest Conference play with an 87-67 win over Linfield in Cone Field House.

The win was the Bearcats fourth straight, improving their records to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the NWC. Linfield fell to 8-3 and 1-1.

Willamette led by just five points at the half, but went on a 16-2 run in the first 6:20 of the second half. When Ryan Rahlfs converted a reverse lay-up on the baseline with 12:10 remaining, the Bearcats garnered their first 20-point lead of the night at 62-42.

WU shot 59.7 percent for the game, compared to 47.2 percent for Linfield, which was playing without all-star point guard O.J. Gulley.

Linfield was led by Jeff Dunn, who scored 17 points. Travis Jones added 10 points off the bench for the Wildcats. Willamette’s defense stifled Linfield’s 6-foot, 11-inch center Nick Fusare, the MVP of the recent Cactus Jam tournament. Fusare finished with just five points and four rebounds.

The Bearcats got another solid game from junior wing Miles Sandgathe, who scored 17 points and dished out four assists. WU also got plenty of help off the bench. David Force had 11 points and Rahlfs added 10 on 5 of 6 shooting from the field. Also, B.J. Dobrkovsky, hampered by an injury most of the season, had eight points, five rebounds and three steals in 28 minutes of play.

Hepp converted 11 of 18 shots from the field, following up on his heroics from Tuesday night when he led the Bearcats to a come-from-behind overtime win at Lewis & Clark. In that game, Hepp was 10 of 18 from the floor and scored 24 points.

The Bearcats are now 5-0 at home this season and have won all 10 halves.

Willamette is idle Saturday night, while Linfield hosts Lewis & Clark.

Lewis & Clark 66, at Pacific 63

Forest Grove, Ore. -- In a game that saw both teams go on their share of scoring streaks, Lewis & Clark came up with the final streak of the game, going on an 8-0 spurt late to hand Pacific a 66-63 loss Friday night in Northwest Conference men's basketball action at the Pacific Athletic Center.

The Pioneers (7-6, 2-2 NWC) led by nine with 10:16 left before Rahim Tufts canned a 15-footer to start an 11-3 run, capping with a Brandon Kilgour three-pointer that tied the game at 51.  The Boxers (3-7, 1-2) appeared to have the momentum, but Nate Kabanuck's first points of the night started the final 8-0 run to put the Pioneers back up by nine with 51 seconds left.

Both teams recovered from ice cold shooting in the first half to make a game of things in the second.  Pacific took the early 4-0 lead on a Dan Lumpkin lay-up, but failed to score over the next four minutes, going 0-5 in the stretch.  The Pioneers failed to get on the board until the 16:02 mark, then slowly built to take a five point lead with 8:58 left.

Lewis & Clark took their biggest lead, 34-22, just before halftime on one of Adam Wells' five three-pointers on the evening.

 The Pioneers outshot the Boxers 47 percent to 46 percent.  Wells led all scorers with 18 points, while teammate Kristofer Speier finished with 16. Tufts led four Boxers in double figures with 17.  Pacific outrebounded the Pioneers 34-28, led by Paul Grock's eight.  Colin Oriard had a double-double for the Pioneers, dumping in 11 points to go along with 12 rebounds, half of the Pioneers' total.

Pacific will aim to even their Northwest Conference record on the road Saturday with a dual against George Fox.  Lewis & Clark travels to McMinnville for a marquee match-up with Linfield.

At Puget Sound 78, Whitman 53

Tacoma, Wash. -- The Loggers had not played at home since December 5th but it didn't take long to warm-up the home nets with a 78-53 Northwest Conference victory over the visiting Whitman College Missionaries.

The Loggers never trailed in their return to Memorial Fieldhouse after six road contests.  A quick 6-1 start fueled by Matt Glynn's 13 first-half points led the Loggers to a 45-26 advantage at intermission.  Puget Sound shot 50% for the game 28-56 from the floor and 75% from the line on 15-20.  The Missionaries were not as fortunate hitting on just 39% from the floor (21-54) and 9-19 (47%) from the line.

Puget Sound was short-handed with injuries to AJ Williams and Matt Scarlett but a number of players took advantage of their increased minutes.  Eight of the nine Logger players scored on the night led by Glynn, Zach McVey and Aubrey Shelton with 16 points.  The Missionaries were led by Kyle Dalvit with 15 and Greg Ricker with 14 points.  Dalvit also had a game-high 13 rebounds as Whitman won the rebounding war by a slim 36-35 margin.  The Missionaries were just 2-15 from three-point range.

Puget Sound evens its record at 6-6 on the year and gains its first NWC victory of the season at 1-2.  The Loggers host league-leading Whitworth College on Saturday night.  Whitman will travel to Pacific Lutheran for NWC action on Saturday with a 4-8 overall and 1-2 league mark.