SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball team will begin pursuit of the 2021-22 Northwest Conference title on Saturday with its NWC opener at Willamette University, followed by a home game against Whitman College next Tuesday. The first "Battle of Whits" of the season will be televised live regionally by SWX. Both games can be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230 am and on the internet at KSBN.net.
Willamette will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test for entry into Cone Fieldhouse. Please plan accordingly. Fans unable to attend can check out the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links for the games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (5-1), ranked 16th in the first regular season D3hoops.com poll, won twice at the David Wells Classic in Claremont, California last week.
The Pirates defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 71-53 on Friday night, thanks to solid defense and a hot first half. Whitworth made 62.5% from the field in the first period, opening a 45-29 lead. The Bucs eventually led by 20 with five minutes to play. JT McDermott led the way with 18 points, four rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal. Jerry Twenge came off the bench to make four three-pointers and finish with 14 points. Liam Fitzgerald had 12 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Whitworth improved to 4-2 all-time against CMS.
After falling behind by as many as eight points (10-2) in the first five minutes of Saturday's game against Pomona-Pitzer, the Pirates took control and went on to win 73-58. Whitworth had its best shooting night of the season, making 51.9% (14-27) from three-point range against the Sagehens' zone defense. The Bucs led by 20 with only 1:18 to play in the game. Garrett Paxton scored a season-high 18 points while making 5-8 from three-point range. Fitzgerald added 14 points, four assists and three rebounds. Rowan Anderson led the team with seven boards and dished five assists 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 in 2021-22. Six Whitworth regulars are averaging between 9.0 and 11.7 points per game. Miguel Lopez leads (11.7 ppg), followed by Jordan Lester (11.2), JT McDermott (11.0), Liam Fitzgerald (9.7), Garrett Paxton (9.7) and Jake Holtz (9.0). Five different Pirates have led the team in scoring over six games this season.
The Opponents: Willamette heads into Friday night's game against Whitman 2-3 this season. The Bearcats have not played since Nov. 20-21 when they competed at the Midway Classic at the University of Chicago. Willamette lost to the host team 97-68 and fell to Denison (Ohio) 98-88. The Bearcats are averaging more than 90 points per game. Cedric Coward is making a strong early case for this season's NWC Freshman of the Year award. The forward is averaging 16.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game, while making better-than 60% of his shots from the field. Junior forward Jack Boydell is the only Willamette player to have started all five games this season. He adds 14.0 points and 2.8 steals per contest. The Pirates and Bearcats have not played since the 2019-20 season and Whitworth won both 97-56 (home) and 92-58 (away). Only one season before that, Willamette knocked off Whitworth 95-93 in Salem.
Whitman College is 1-5 following a four-game trip to California over Thanksgiving week. The Blues lost 93-65 at Chapman on Tuesday and 82-68 at Caltech on Wednesday. They played Chapman again on Saturday in Santa Cruz and fell 71-60, then lost 65-57 at UC Santa Cruz on Sunday. Whitman currently allows 13 more rebounds per game than it gains. Junior guard Walter Lum averages 15.5 points and 3.7 assists per game. Sophomore wing Xzavier Lino contributes 11.5 points and a team-leading 8.0 rebounds per contest. Whitworth and Whitman played only two of the four scheduled games in 2020-21, and both were in Walla Walla. The Pirates rolled to an easy 81-60 win in the opener, but the Blues bounced back to stun Whitworth 69-67 the following night. The Pirates have not beaten Whitman in Spokane since Jan. 5, 2016.
D3hoops.com Poll: The Pirates are ranked 16th in the first D3hoops.com top 25 regular season poll (Nov. 29) of 2021-22.
Whitworth has appeared in the D3hoops.com top-25 poll 173 times since it was created during the 1999-00 season. Very few teams have appeared in the rankings more than Whitworth has. Heading into 2021-22, the Pirates were eighth on the list among schools ranked in the top-25 the most times.
1. Wooster 249
2. UW-Stevens Point 240
3. Amherst 234
4. Washington U. 203
5. St. Thomas 199
6. UW-Whitewater 194
7. Augustana 185
8. Whitworth 172
9. Williams 171
10. Illinois Wesleyan 164
Over the poll's 20-year history, 32 programs have reached the top spot at least once. UW-Stevens Point has reached that spot in seven different seasons. Whitworth has been there in two seasons: 2010-11 and 2015-16.
Excellence = Decade and a Half: With its win at Whitman on February 20, 2020, Whitworth extended its school record for consecutive seasons with at least 20 victories to 15 in a row. Prior to this current streak, the most 20-win seasons in a row the Pirates had ever had was two (on three different occasions). The NCAA statistics office is granting waivers for streak records that were interrupted by Covid-19 in 2020-21.
Only Wooster (Ohio), with 24, has a longer run of consecutive 20-win seasons in NCAA Division III men's basketball.
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 374-76 (.831), 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 106-25 (.809) away from home, 78-19 (.804) 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 host Colorado College in a non-conference game on December 12th.
