WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Coaches love sequences which are emblematic of success but leave no statistical residue. This type of exemplary intangible tends to abound for winning teams.

"The little things," Whitman junior guard Tim Howell called them. "They add up."

Take an eight-second frame, which will leave nary a mark in scorebooks and will probably slip into obscurity, during the second half of Whitman's 108-78 romp over St. Olaf's in the ninth-ranked Blues' season-opening men's basketball game Friday at Sherwood Center.

The visiting Oles (1-1) had just in-bounded the ball following a 3-pointer by Whitman's Jack Stewart which pushed the hosts' lead to 70-52. The inbound recipient couldn't dribble or find a passing outlet, as all five Blues defenders on the floor locked up their St. Olaf counterpart. He was forced to call a timeout.

The moment was not as dazzling as the final score, or Whitman's 19 steals, or Austin Butler's near-triple double, or Stewart's four-point play to push the Blues to the century mark in scoring, or any other of a duffel-full of showpiece crowd-pleasers and box-score stuffers.

But it distilled the collective defensive dominance which allowed Whitman (1-0) to unravel the highly-structured, well-coached Oles and post an emphatic victory against a team that has been to three consecutive NCAA tournaments and beat defending champion St. Thomas on its own floor last year.

"Coach is always talking to us about imposing our will," Howell said. "We wanted to turn this into a track meet. We had to get our feet wet first."

Blues brows seemed to reach optimal sweat-level somewhere near the 8-minute mark of the first half, when Whitman's full-court pressure began to work its corrosive brilliance. A 31-25 St. Olaf lead went poof as the Blues forced six turnovers and ended the half on a 29-13 run. A put-back by Butler, a Butler layin following a Joey Hewitt steal, and Butler's put-back of an errant 3-point attempt by Howell at the halftime buzzer capped a blur of six Whitman points in 33 seconds.

"We had that spurt," Blues coach Eric Bridgeland said. "(St. Olaf) looked tired after that."

But Bridgeland has seen this show before, and knows that a 10-point halftime lead is not as important as the opening moments of the second half, where it either shrinks or expands.

On Friday, it exploded.

"I was proud that our guys were able to separate," said Bridgeland. "The guys were able to push the lead against a team that is so, so good. St. Olaf has a champion's spirit. They are so structured and ran some great stuff. The game plan was to get them out of that structure."

A 10-0 run featuring steals by Stewart, Butler and Jase Harrison, two 3-pointers by Stewart and a Butler breakaway dunk gave Whitman an 82-54 lead with 11:26 left -- and put the game away. St. Olaf committed four of its 25 turnovers during the spurt.

Howell and Harrison (six rebounds) had 16 points and five steals apiece. Butler had 14 points, nine assists, six rebounds and two blocked shots. Stewart played just 17 minutes because of foul trouble, but stroked 4 of 5 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Cedric Jacobs-Jones carried Whitman early, during a barrage of St. Olaf 3-pointers, and posted 13 points and six rebounds. Hewitt added 13 points and three steals.

Whitman made 42-of-75 field goals (56 percent) and won handily despite an impressive long-range shooting display by the visitors, who made 13-of-26 3-pointers. Whitman also controlled the glass, out-rebounding the Oles 38-32.

"We're excited. We have one of the toughest schedules Whitman has ever had this year," said Howell. "I like it like that. We want to play the best, because we feel we're one of the top teams in the country."

The Blues play Schreiner University on Nov. 25 in Spokane as part of the two-day NWC Classic.