SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth women's basketball team will celebrate Thanksgiving week in California with three non-conference basketball games against members of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. The Pirates will play at Whittier College on Wednesday (4:00 pm) vs. Pomona-Pitzer on Friday (1:30 pm at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) and at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday (3:30 pm). The games on Friday and Saturday will be carried live on KSBN radio (1230 am) and on KSBN.net.
Please check each school's athletics website for current attendance policies. Fans unable to attend can find live links on the Whitworth women's basketball schedule.
The Pirates: Whitworth (0-3) played its third powerful NAIA team last Friday and the Bucs suffered their third loss of the season, 88-61 at Carroll (Mont.). The Saints, ranked 7th in the NAIA, had six players reach double figures in scoring, shot 52.4% as a team from the floor and made ten three-pointers. Whitworth stayed within striking distance for most of the first half, pulling within 34-25 with three minutes to play in the second period before Carroll closed the half on an 8-0 run. Megan Dorney had 19 points and five rebounds for the Pirates. Quincy McDeid added 11 points, while Tara Kaneshiro played all 40 minutes and dished a career-high seven assists.
The Opponents: Whitworth will be taking on NCAA Division III opponents for the first time this season.
Whittier College comes into the 2021-22 season with high hopes after a second place finish during the 2019-20 campaign. Senior guard Teani White was a first team All-SCIAC honoree in 2020 and she is off to a hot start this year. White is averaging 20.3 points per game while making 45% of her three-pointers as a high-volume shooter. Whittier is off to a 2-1 start, defeating 24th-ranked George Fox 55-39 last Saturday but losing 63-44 to Puget Sound on Sunday. Both were at home. The Pirates and Poets last played in women's basketball on November 17, 2017 and Whitworth won 87-59 at home.
Pomona-Pitzer is 2-2 this season and all four games have been against Northwest Conference opponents. The wins are over PLU and George Fox (75-69 this past Sunday), while the losses have come to Pacific (Ore.) and Puget Sound. Senior guard Madison Quan plays hard all over the floor, averaging 15.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game. The Pirates and Sagehens have not played each other since November 15, 2013 and Whitworth won that game 72-56 at home.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is 2-2 this season, coming off a trip to the NYU Tip-Off Classic in Manhattan. The Athenas defeated Bridgewater State 52-46 on Saturday, but fell to host NYU 68-54 on Sunday. Junior forward Austyn Masuno has been simply dominant for CMS, averaging 14.5 points, 15.5 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. Whitworth has not played CMS since December 5, 2009 when the Pirates won 81-57 in a game played in Santa Cruz, California.
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 open Northwest Conference play at Willamette on December 4th before hosting Whitman on December 7th.
