SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth women's basketball team is on the road for the first time this week. The Pirates face a stiff challenge with NAIA power Carroll College in Helena, Montana. The game will tip off at 7:00 pm in Montana, (6:00 pm in Spokane).
At this time masks are required in the Carroll PE Center. Please plan accordingly. Fans unable to attend can find live links on the Whitworth women's basketball schedule.
The Pirates: Whitworth (0-2) opened the 2021-22 season with a pair of home losses to NAIA programs at the Quality Inn Whit Classic last weekend.
The Pirates had a 14-13 lead after a quarter and stretched the margin to four points early in the second before Southern Oregon caught fire for a 63-54 win. Megan Dorney made 8 of 11 shots from the field and scored 20 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Talia Brandner added 18 points, also with seven rebounds. Quincy McDeid was Whitworth's leading rebounder with 10 boards. She also dished three assists. The Bucs struggled from three-point range (3-14, 21.4%) and the free throw line (11-21, 52.4%).
Whitworth tied Monana Western 16-16 in the first and 16-16 in the third, but the Bulldogs pulled away in the second and fourth quarters for a 67-45 victory. The Pirates' shooting struggles from three-point range continued (4-23, 17.4%). They also committed 20 turnovers against UMW's physical defense. McDeid was Whitworth's only player to reach double figures in scoring with 12 points. Dorney had nine points and six rebounds.
The Saints: Carroll College is 4-1 in 2021-22 (heading into a game Wednesday night) and the Saints are 7th in the preseason NAIA poll. Carroll finished 21-3 last season after reaching the second round of the NAIA tournament. The Saints received five of six first place votes and were picked first in the Frontier Conference preseason poll. Christine Denny and Danielle Wagner, both senior guards, were named to the preseason All-Conference team, along with junior forward Jamie Pickens. Wagner leads the team in scoring average this season at 16.2 points per game. The last time the Pirates and Saints played was Nov. 15, 2019 in Spokane and Carroll rolled to a 98-56 victory.
NCAA Championship is Back: The NCAA Division III tournament is back in 2021-22 after getting cancelled last season. The first two rounds will take place March 4-5 on campus sites, as will the rounds of 16 and 8 on March 11-12. The Division III final four will be held at the A.J. Palumbo Center March 18-19 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
On the Air Again: Many of Whitworth's games are once again carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. The broadcast schedule includes non-conference games in California and all Northwest Conference contests. The relationship between Pirate athletics and KSBN goes back to 1994, a span of more than 25 years. Bud Nameck is in his seventh season as the voice of Whitworth basketball. Nameck has more than 30 years of experience calling college basketball at Gonzaga University and Washington State.
The Coach: Joial Griffith is in her fourth season as the women's basketball coach at Whitworth University in 2021-22. She has guided the Pirates to a record of 31-27 in her two years, including two fourth place finishes in the Northwest Conference and a 4-4 mark during the COVID-19 schedule of 2020-21. Griffith took over for long-time Whitworth head coach Helen Higgs, who resigned after 24 seasons as the winningest coach in Pirate women's basketball history. Griffith spent one season with the Williams (Mass.) Ephs' women's basketball program. Prior to her year at Williams, she was the assistant coach at Claremont-Scripps-Colleges in Southern California, near where she grew up. The Athenas made back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances during her two seasons, finishing 20-9 in 2017 and 23-6 in 2016.
Looking Ahead: Whitworth will travel to California for the week of Thanksgiving, playing at Whittier on November 24th and participating in the David Wells Classic at Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on November 26th and 27th.
