All Good Things Must Come to an End

SPOKANE, Wash. (March 8, 2008) – Before 1,600 fans at the Whitworth Fieldhouse tonight the Pirates handed the # 25 Tigers an 83-75 loss, ending their season, during the Second Round of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Oxy won the tip-off, but soon found themselves trailing 7-0 in front of a packed and boisterous student-section and Pirate fans. The Tigers came out cold and found themselves battling back throughout the first half.

Occidental jumped on the back of senior guard Connor Whitman who got the Tigers on the board with a pair of free-throws and followed that with eight more points in the first nine minutes of action, en route to 15 first-half points. Oxy pulled within a pair twice before scoring eight unanswered points, the final two again coming from Whitman at the line, in the final two minutes of the opening stanza to take a 38-33 half-time lead.

“In the first 20 minutes we played one of the best halves of the season.” Said Head Coach Brian Newhall. “It was on the road against a tough opponent and we did exactly what we wanted to do.”

Unfortunately the lead was short-lived for Oxy.

After Huston Conti hit a three-pointer 40 seconds in to the second half, which gave the Tigers their largest lead of the game at 41-35, the home team came back strong with a 13-0 run opening up a 48-41 lead with just under 14 to play. When Ryan Symes hit a three-pointer at the 14:49 mark the Pirates took a lead they would not relinquish for the remainder of the contest.

Joe Sasich completed a three-point play to cut the deficit to 59-53 with seven and a half to go for Oxy. Pirates’ senior Ryan Symes quickly sparked a 9-1 run that would put Whitworth up by 14 points, the largest gap of the game, with 3:52 to play.

The Tigers continued to claw, behind eight points from Conti (two three-pointers), in the final minute, but perfection at the line for the Pirates sealed the victory. Sending WU to the free-throw line with the hopes of grabbing a rebound did not work for the Tigers tonight as five Pirates’ players combined to knock down 20-for-20 free-throws. In the final 1:21 of action Whitworth was 12-for-12 from the line.

Occidental, a typically solid free-throw shooting team, finished the night 10-for-16.

The match up of conference players of the year turned out as expected. Whitman, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference Player of the Year, finished with 23 points to lead Occidental while Northwest Conference Player of the Year Symes led Whitworth with 24 points.

Whitman finished the night, and his Oxy career, shooting 5-for-15 from three-point range and 6-for-6 from the stripe while dishing out a team-leading six assists. Symes was 9-for-13 from the field, going 2-for-2 from beyond the arc and 4-for-4 from the line.

As the game went on Whitman’s hot start cooled down. “I had a lot of open shots in the second half, but I was barely missing,” he said after the game.

 “They did a good job of pressuring Whitman tonight,” said Newhall. “You have to give them all the credit in the world for pressing and wearing us down and covering up. They made it difficult for him, especially in the second half.”

Occidental shot 42.6% from the field overall, going just 13-for-33 in the second half. They were 46.4% from three-point range in the game.

Conti finished the night shooting 5-for-7 from beyond the arc, pouring in 18 points for the Tigers, while Chris Hunt came off of the bench for 14 points. Sasich added eight on 3-for-4 shooting while playing a key defensive role.

Whitworth shot 51% overall from the field making 26-for-51 shots including an 11-for-22 performance from behind the arc.

WU’s freshman phenom David Riley added 19 points for the Pirates, including 5-for-8 from three point range. Colin Willemsen finished with 15 points and Ross Nakamura tallied 11 points while handing out a game-high eight assists.

“You have to defend the Whitworth perimeter shooting if you want to have a chance. We did that well in the first half, but they got rolling in the second half,” said Newhall.

Whitworth also out-rebounded the Tigers by a 34-31 margin although Oxy managed to grab 11 offensive boards to the Pirates’ five. Hunt and Willemsen, who had the arduous task of covering Whitman tonight, shared the game-lead with eight rebounds apiece, each grabbing two offensive boards. Symes, Riley, Conti and Chris Pitcher finished with six apiece with Symes and Riley each adding a pair of blocks. Symes also recorded the only Pirates steal of the night.

Both teams took care of the ball tonight combining for just nine turnovers. Occidental forced the  Pirates’ who are ranked fourth in the nation for the fewest turnovers per game, to turn the ball over six times. Pitcher, Whitman, Conti and Gyan Alexander each got a steal for the Tigers.

All seven seniors stepped out on the court tonight for the Tigers. Gemayal McBride finished shooting 2-for-3 with an assist. John Impelman grabbed a pair of rebounds and added two points for Oxy. Henry Meier recorded a rebound and a block that led to an Alexander lay-up in the second half. Jordan Schultz also saw action tonight.

“Whitworth is a very well discipline team all around,” said Whitman after the game. “They just don’t make mistakes at home, which makes them tough to beat.”

The Pirates (21-6) advance to play Wheaton College (Ill.) in the Sectional Semi-Finals at a site yet to be determined while the Tigers’ season ends at 22-6.