SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball season continues this week with a pair of tough games in Wisconsin against the University of Wisconsin-Platteville on Friday and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday. Both games will tip off at 7:00 pm (CT) / 5:00 pm (PT).
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links for the games.
The Pirates: Whitworth, ranked 19th in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, opened the season with a pair of victories at their own Tip Off Classic, presented by Quality Inn Oakwood.
The Pirates opened with a wild 146-110 win over Greenville University on Friday night. After falling behind 20-13 in the game's first six minutes, Whitworth caught fire offensively after figuring out the Panther's press and scored 70 points by halftime while making 75% from the field (33-44) in the opening period. The Pirates went on to break school records for points, field goals (65) and assists (47) in a game. Jordan Lester posted the first triple-double at Whitworth since 2009 with 18 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists. Miguel Lopez nearly matched his accomplishment with 17 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists. Liam Fitzgerald also had 18 points on 9-10 shooting from the field. Eight different Pirates reached double figures in scoring and every player on the roster scored at least one point in the game.
Whitworth won 74-68 against a University of Redlands team that was fresh and playing its first game of the season. The Pirates opened a 15-point lead in the first half and a 10-point margin in the second half only to see the Bulldogs rally to tie each period. With the game tied 68-68 in the final two minutes, Whitworth got four consecutive stops and made the offensive plays down the stretch for the win. Lester had another big game with 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Lopez added 13 points and five boards. Garrett Paxton scored all 12 of his points in the first half. The Pirates finished with a 38-31 edge in rebounds and only committed 13 turnovers against the Redlands press.
Amazing Start: Jordan Lester had one of the best starts to a season in Whitworth history. In two games, the guard averaged 16 points, 12.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists. Due to injuries, Lester has played only one full season as a Pirate after transferring to Whitworth for the 2017-18 season. That came in 2018-19. Lester has taken advantage of two medical hardships waivers and the extra season granted because of COVID-19. He is completing his MBA from Whitworth in December.
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. Miguel Lopez averaged 12.6, while Liam Fitzgerald and Garrett Paxton put up 11.6 per game. Rowan Anderson averaged 11.2 per game. That trend has continued through the first two games of 2021-22.
The Match Ups: Wisconsin-Platteville is ranked fifth in the D3hoops.com preseason poll and the Pioneers are the favorites in the powerful Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. Platteville went 8-2 during the COVID-19 season of 2020-21 after finishing 23-5 and reaching the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament in 2019-20. Senior guard Quentin Shields is a D3hoops.com preseason All-American and a two-time first team All-WIAC honoree. He averaged 15.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game last winter/spring. The Pirates and Pioneers have played only once and Whitworth won that meeting 84-77 in Las Vegas during the D3hoops.com Classic on Dec. 29, 2013.
Wisconsin-Whitewater is a perennial power under 21st year head coach Pat Miller. The Warhawks were NCAA Div. III champions in 2012 and 2014 and have been regulars in the NCAA Division III tournament. Following heavy losses to graduation, Whitewater dropped back to 8-17 in 2019-20 and went 1-7 in the COVID 2020-21 year. But all five starters are back and the Warhawks are picked fourth in the preseason WIAC poll. The top player is junior guard Gage Malensek, who earned first team All-WIAC after scoring 20.5 points per game on 50.0 shooting from the field and 45.7% from three-point range. Whitworth and Whitewater have played twice, but haven't met in more than a decade. The Pirates won 94-84 in Spokane on December 29, 2009. The Warhawks won 76-61 on December 21, 2011 at a tournament in San Antonio on the way toward their first national title under Miller.
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 371-75 (.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 103-24 (.811) away from home, 75-18 (.806) 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 get a game against its Alumni on November 20th before returning to official competition in Southern California against annual SCIAC contenders Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer.
