Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. - Coming off a draining double-overtime victory Friday at Whitman College, the George Fox University Bruins ran out of steam against the well-rested Whitworth University Pirates, who had not played the day before, and dropped a 70-58 decision in Northwest Conference men's basketball action Saturday night here at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

Whitworth jumped out to a 7-0 lead three minutes into the game on layups by David Riley and Colin Willemsen around a three-pointer by Willemsen and never trailed, but could never fully put away the battling Bruins. A three-point play by Taylor Martin and two layups by Brent Satern brought the Bruins within two points at 9-7 with 13:12 left in the half, but that was as close as the Bruins would come. With Willemsen scoring 13 first-half points and Ryan Symes 10, the Pirates extended their lead to 16 points at 29-13 with 4:04 to go on a Tim Sellereit jumper, and maintained a 12-point margin of 33-21 at the break.

The Pirates raised their lead back to 16 points three times in the early stages of the second half before the Bruins mounted a comeback attempt. Down 46-30 with 14:48 left, the Bruins went on a 15-4 tear, keyed by six points, including a three-pointer, by Satern, cutting the deficit to 50-45 with 10:35 to play. Consecutive threes by Drew Bruns, his only goal of the game, and post player Calvin Jurich answered that threat, pushing the Pirate lead back up to 11 at 56-45 with 9:11 remaining, and the home team kept a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Satern finished with 22 points, 16 in the second half, but he was the only Bruin to reach double digits in scoring. He also passed out five assists. Travis Toedtemeier had a team-high four rebounds as the Bruins were out-boarded 33-24. The Bruins shot .400 (22-55) from the field and hit only .583 (7-12) from the free throw line.

Willemsen posted a double-double with 24 points, hitting 8-10 from the field with a pair of threes and 6-6 from the line, and 10 rebounds, while Symes finished with 20 points, including 10-13 from the stripe. Point guard Ross Nakamura handed out six assists with no turnovers, helping his assist/turnover ratio, which at 4.75 coming in was already the nation's best.

George Fox (5-12, NWC 1-7) plays the final two games of a five-game road stretch next weekend, starting with Pacific Lutheran University Friday at 8:00 p.m. in Tacoma, Wash. That game will be preceded by an NWC women's game at 6:00 p.m. Whitworth (13-3, NWC 7-1), which maintained a share of the conference lead alongside the University of Puget Sound with its seventh straight victory, entertains the University of California-Santa Cruz in a non-conference game Sunday at 2:00 p.m.