SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball season officially resumes this week with a pair of tough games in California at the David Wells Classic. The Pirates will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday at 8:00 pm and Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at 6:00 pm. Both will take place at CMS and will be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230 am and on the internet at KSBN.net.
Check the CMS athletics website for current attendance policies. Check out the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links for the games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (3-1) has not played an official game since November 13th at Wis.-Whitewater. The Pirates defeated a team of Whitworth Alumni 100-70 last Saturday (Nov. 20) thanks to 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench from Jake Holtz and 15 points by Garrett Paxton. JT McDermott, Jerry Twenge and Wyatt Walker all scored 11. The Pirate Alumni included four former Northwest Conference Players of the Year/All-Americans.
Whitworth lost 90-69 at Wis.-Platteville on November 12th. The 5th-ranked Pioneers never trailed after the Pirates hit the game's first three-pointer and opened a 48-28 lead at halftime. Whitworth got back within 11 points midway through the second half before Platteville pulled away again. Rowan Anderson led the Pirates with 16 points, while Jojo Anderson scored 14 points off the bench. Jake Holtz also came off the bench for 11 points.
Whitworth bounced back for a hard-fought 80-79 win at Wisconsin-Whitewater the following night. The Pirates fell behind 18-9 early before rallying to take a 40-37 lead at halftime. Whitworth opened up a 67-52 lead midway through the second half. The Warhawks rallied to pull within a point four times in the final 3:20, but could never overcome the Bucs. Jordan Lester scored what became the game-winning basket with 53 seconds left, then secured the game-winning rebound as time expired. JT McDermott had 17 points and dished six assists, while Lester had 16 points and six rebounds. Holtz scored 16 points off the bench.
Finding Balance: Whitworth had very balanced scoring in 2020-21. In 17 games the Pirates had four players average between 11.2 and 12.6 points per game, and all are back this season. That trend has continued through the first four games of 2021-22. Six Whitworth regulars are averaging between 9.8 and 13.3 points per game. Jordan Lester leads (13.3 ppg), followed by Miguel Lopez (12.3), Rowan Anderson (12.3), Jake Holtz (11.0) and Garrett Paxton (10.0).
The Opponents: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps opened the season this past weekend with a pair of victories at the McArthur Classic in Tacoma. The Stags defeated host Puget Sound 73-59 on Friday night, then beat Pacific Lutheran 66-60 on Saturday. Junior guard Josh Angle had a huge weekend, averaging 18.5 points while making 50% of his three-pointers. He added 7.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Whitworth and CMS have a competitive history. The Pirates lead the series 3-2, including the last meeting 93-83 at home on November 8, 2019. But the Stags knocked Whitworth out of the NCAA Division III tournament in consecutive first round games in 2017 and 2018. The Pirates won the only game played at CMS, but that was back in December of 2010 (79-64).
Pomona-Pitzer is off to a 3-1 start, including two wins this past weekend at the Midway Classic in Chicago. The Sagehens beat Denison 74-59 on Saturday, then knocked off host University of Chicago 64-63 on Sunday with a buzzer-beating three-pointer. Senior forward Matthew Eberle leads the team in scoring this season at 15.8 points per game. Junior Brendan Mora adds 15.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per contest. Whitworth and Pomona-Pitzer have only played once, and the Sagehens won that game 55-54 on December 4, 2009 in St. Louis, Mo.
Best of the Decade: Whitworth University concluded the decade of 2010-11 through 2019-20 as the winningest program in NCAA Division III men's basketball, by winning percentage. The Pirates posted a record of 245-43 for a winning percentage of .851. In addition, Whitworth's winning percentage ranked fourth among the top schools in all of NCAA basketball, behind West Liberty (Div. II - .895), Lincoln Memorial (Div. II - .874) and Gonzaga (Div. I - .858). Two of the winningest men's basketball teams in the nation are located within six miles of each other.
The decade included three head coaches for the Pirates, beginning with Jim Hayford in 2010-11, continuing with Matt Logie for eight seasons and concluding with Damion Jablonski in 2019-20.
More Than A Decade of Dominance: Since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (over 15 seasons) the Pirates are 372-76 (.830), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 184 of its last 205 (.897).
Home-Sweet-Home: Whitworth has been stellar in the Whitworth Fieldhouse since the 1990's. During the decade of the 1990s and 2000's Whitworth won more than 84% of its home games. However, since the beginning of the 2005-06 season, the Bucs are 190-21 (.900) at home.
The Pirates have had two home-court winning streaks of more than 40 games since 1990. A 41-game home court winning streak from early 2009 until December of 2011 was the second-longest in Pirate history. The school record for consecutive home victories is 43, beginning during the 1994-95 season and ending during the 1997-98 season.
Road Warriors: As good as Whitworth is at home, the Pirates have been almost as good away from the Whitworth Fieldhouse over the last decade. Since the start of the 11-12 season, Whitworth is 104-25 (.806) away from home, 76-19 (.800) in true road games.
On the Air Again: Whitworth's men's basketball games are once again carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. 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: Damion Jablonski is in his 11th season on the Pirate coaching staff in 2020-21, and his third as head coach of the Pirates. He is currently 37-11 as Whitworth's head coach. His first year was a rousing success. He went 23-6, led the Pirates to a share of the Northwest Conference championship and to a pair of victories in the NCAA Division III tournament. The Bucs were slated to face top-ranked Swarthmore before the tournament was cancelled. Jablonski was named D3hoops.com West Region Coach of the Year and he coached Ben College to NWC Player of the Year and NABC All-America recognition. Whitworth went 12-5 during the COVID-19 season in 2020-21, including games against NCAA DI Montana, NCAA DII Seattle Pacific and NAIA playoff regular College of Idaho.
Jablonski spent eight years as the top assistant at Whitworth, including six seasons with the title of Associate Head Coach. Over the course of his tenure as an assistant, the Bucs won 215 games, seven Northwest Conference titles and seven NWC tournament crowns. As the head recruiting coordinator, Jablonski was instrumental in continuing the Bucs' tradition of success by helping to recruit high quality student-athletes to Whitworth. His efforts over the past several years have included the addition of First Team All-American Kyle Roach, third team All-American and NWC Player of the Year Kenny Love and First Team All Northwest Conference selection Christian Jurlina.
Coming Up Next: Whitworth will open its Northwest Conference schedule at Willamette on Saturday, December 4th before hosting Whitman on Tuesday, December 7th.
