SPOKANE, Wash. –Whitworth University will make up a pair of men's basketball games at home this week against Linfield and Pacific. The Pirates will host Linfield on Tuesday night (8:00 pm) and Pacific (Ore.) on Wednesday (6:00 pm). Tuesday's contest will be televised live regionally by SWX and both games can be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230 am and on the internet at KSBN.net.
Masks are required for all fans in the Whitworth Fieldhouse, regardless of vaccination status. Fans unable to attend can check out the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links for the games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (11-2), ranked 18th in the most recent D3hoops.com poll, bounced back from its first conference loss of the season with victories over Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran last weekend. The Pirates made 54% from the field and put up 190 combined points in the two games.
Whitworth defeated Puget Sound 93-77 on Friday night after leading by as many as 30 points (82-52) with just over eight minutes to play. The Pirates made 54% of their shots, including 64% (18-28) in the second half. The Bucs made 11 of 26 (42.3%) from beyond the arc and outrebounded the Loggers 37-30. JT McDermott scored a career-high 27 points, making 11 of 14 from the field. Garrett Paxton added his own career-high of 23, making 7 of 11 three-point attempts. Miguel Lopez had ten points.
The Pirates were even more impressive on Saturday night, handing Pacific Lutheran its first conference loss in emphatic fashion with a 97-69 victory. Whitworth led by 33 late in the game and made 53.8% from the field (35-65) and the same from three-point range (14-26). The Bucs shot 62% (21-34) in the second half when they outscored the Lutes 53-31. Paxton led five players in double figures with 19 points, all in the second half. Liam Fitzgerald added 18 points, going 6-9 from three-point range. Jojo Anderson scored a career-high 17 points off the bench, while Rowan Anderson and Jerry Twenge had ten apiece. Fitzgerald had seven of Whitworth's 25 assists in the game.
Share and Share Alike: Whitworth leads the Northwest Conference (and ranks 10th in all of DIII) in assists per game in 2021-22, averaging 19.5 per game. In the season opener the Pirates set a team record for assists in a single game (47) in a win over Greenville. The Pirates not only pass well, they take care of the ball, leading the NWC (and ranking 7th in DIII) in Assist-Turnover ratio (1.53).
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. Five Whitworth regulars are averaging between 9.4 and 12.8 points per game. JT McDermott leads (12.8 ppg), followed by Liam Fitzgerald (11.8), Garrett Paxton (11.7), Miguel Lopez (11.3), and Rowan Anderson (9.4). All five players have led the team in scoring in a game this season.
The Opponents: Linfield University, the NWC preseason favorite, comes into Tuesday's game 9-3 overall and 4-0 in the conference, alone atop the standings. The Wildcats pulled out a 95-87 double-overtime win against visiting Pacific (Ore.) last Tuesday after trailing by 17 early in the second half, without their leading scorer. They followed up with a 76-71 win at George Fox on Saturday. Graduate student Dempsey Roggenbuck is a Conference Player of the Year candidate who leads the NWC in scoring this season (21.1 ppg). Junior forward Aaron Baune adds 14.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per contest. Whitworth defeated Linfield 98-95 at home in the first match up of 2019-20, but the Wildcats won 91-80 in McMinnville to end a 25-game losing streak to the Pirates and force a share the 2019-20 NWC regular season crown.
Pacific University is 5-8 overall and 1-3 in the NWC heading into Tuesday's makeup game at Whitman. Following last Tuesday's heartbreaker at Linfield, the Boxers bounced back to defeat Lewis & Clark 83-75 at home on Friday. Pacific leads the NWC in scoring offense (87.6) this season, while Ethan Chung (13.8), Mario Mora (13.4), and Jacob Bolger (13.4 ppg) lead the team in scoring average. Mora leads the NWC in three-pointers per game (3.15). Whitworth swept the Boxers in 2019-20, winning 81-78 at home and 94-75 on the road. The Pirates have won the last seven meetings.
D3hoops.com Poll: The Pirates are ranked 18th in today's (Jan. 17) D3hoops.com top 25 regular season poll.
Whitworth has appeared in the D3hoops.com top-25 poll 178 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.
20=15: 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 379-77 (.831), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 187 of its last 209 (.894).
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 195-21 (.903) at home. Whitworth has won its last 13 games 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 106-26 (.803) away from home, 78-20 (.796) 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 hit the road for games at Lewis & Clark and George Fox on January 21 and 22.
