SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth pulled away in the second half for a 90-76 win over visiting Belhaven in a non-conference men's basketball game on Monday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse after solving the visiting Blazers' full court press after halftime.
The Pirates (5-1) trailed most of the first half and only led by two (47-45) at halftime after committing 12 turnovers in the opening period.
Belhaven (3-7), coming off a 92-73 win at Whitman on Saturday, jumped to a 13-5 lead on a basket by Neal Terry only 3:40 into the contest. The Pirates cut the margin to 14-13 on Ben Fried's basket before the Blazers went up 21-15 on Braylon Dame's three-pointer. Whitworth finally tied the game 28-28 on Nate Krohn's three-pointer and went ahead on Fried's layup. Belhaven's responded again, turning three turnovers into a 38-32 lead on Dame's layup with 3:31 to go. The Bucs used a 15-4 run to go ahead 47-42 on a Ben Nyquist fast break basket with under a minute to play before the Blazer's got a late three-pointer to trim the margin to two at halftime. Nyquist had a dozen first half points for Whitworth to help off-set a dozen Pirate turnovers.
The Bucs opened the second half on a 9-2 run, thanks to better ball management, going up 56-47 on Caden Bateman's short jumper. Belhaven briefly got back within 63-59 and had a chance to cut the margin further with two possessions. Whitworth took its first double-digit lead (74-63) on another Bateman basket with just under ten minutes left and led comfortably the rest of the way. The Bucs committed only seven second half turnovers.
Stephen Behil led the Pirates with 20 points. Nyquist filled the box score with 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals. Bateman scored 14 and Colton Looney added 12, ten in the second half. Bateman posted a double-double with ten rebounds, helping Whitworth to a 46-34 advantage on the boards. Krohn played 17 important minutes off the bench and scored nine points.
Dan Robinson scored a game-high 27 points to lead Belhaven and added four steals, while Dame finished with 15 points for the Blazers.
Whitworth will take final exams over the next four days before returning to action with three games in California, beginning with Pomona-Pitzer on December 15.
