PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – Visiting Whitworth could not stop the University of Wisconsin-Platteville on Friday night as the Pioneers made 61% of their shots and 45% of their three-pointers to power past the Pirates 90-69 in a non-conference men's basketball game.
The 5th-ranked Pioneers improved to 2-0 while the 19th-ranked Pirates dropped to 2-1.
Kyle Tuma scored 21 points for Platteville, while Quentin Shields added 19 and Blake McCann had 18. Tuma went 10-12 at the free throw line and Shields went 8-12 from the field, including 2-3 from three-point range.
Whitworth took its only lead when Rowan Anderson opened the game with a three-pointer. The Pioneers scored the next 13 points and never trailed again. Whitworth got within 15-11 on a basket by Jojo Anderson, but Platteville used an 11-2 run over the next five minutes to open a 26-13 lead on a basket by Tuma. The Pirates fought back to within 30-22 on Jordan Lester's layup with 6:45 to go in the half, but the Pioneers outscored the Bucs 18-6 the rest of the period to take a 48-28 lead into the locker rooms.
Platteville opened its largest lead at 62-36 just over six minutes into the second half. From there Whitworth began to chip away and trimmed the margin to 67-50 on Anderson's three-pointer with 10:00 to play. The Bucs got as close as 71-60 on JT McDermontt's layup with seven minutes to go, but that's as close as Whitworth would get. Platteville was able to stretch the lead back to 82-62 three minutes later.
Anderson led Whitworth with 16 points, making 4-7 from beyond the arc. Anderson and Jake Holtz scored 14 and 11 off the bench, respectively. Liam Fitzgerald led the Pirates with seven rebounds, but Platteville had a 42-31 edge on the boards. Whitworth finished the game 24-69 (35%) from the field, 8-28 (29%) from three-point range.
Whitworth concludes its trip to Wisconsin with a game at Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday.
