Pirates get ball bouncing

This past weekend marked the official start of the women’s ’09–’10 basketball season and featured two tough opening games for the Pirates. The team lost its first game against the highly ranked Lewis-Clark State Warriors on Friday, Nov. 20, but bounced back on Saturday to defeat Macalester College. Both games were played at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., as part of the Kim Evanger Raney Memorial Classic.

In the first game on Friday, the highly ranked Warriors jumped out to a quick lead over the Bucs.

After this initial spurt, the Pirates were able to control the run and start to chip away at the Warriors’s lead. At halftime the lead was 36-25 in Lewis-Clark’s favor.

In the second half the Bucs cut the lead down even further, coming within six points approximately midway through the second half. However, the Warriors responded and pulled the lead back out to double digits once again.

The second game of the weekend, played against Macalester College from St. Paul, Minn., started out in much the same way as the game the previous night.

The Macalester Scots jumped out to an early lead, and held the lead all the way up until halftime.

In the second half, the Scots came out strong and were able to stay one step ahead of the Pirates, barely hanging on to a tenuous single-digit lead.

However, midway though the second half the Bucs hit their stride and started chipping away at the scoring deficit. Whitworth was finally able to break ahead in the final minutes, winning by a score of 67-61.

Several Whitworth players played well over the two games. Senior guard Cassie Pilkinton led the team with a combined 25 points in the two games, followed by senior guard Heather Burke with 18.

On the defensive end, Pilkinton led the team with four steals, while freshman forward Katie Delaney pulled down nine total rebounds.

The win and loss give the Pirates a 1-1 record, and next weekend they look to improve at the Colorado College Thanksgiving Classic.

Contact Peter Landgren at peter.landgren@whitworthian.com.

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