SPOKANE, Wash. –After Whitworth University survived a brutal six-games-in-nine-days stretch, the Pirates now get a chance to rest before playing one game this weekend. Whitworth hosts Willamette University on Friday night at 8:00 pm and the game can be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230 am and on the internet at KSBN.net.
Whitworth requires masks, regardless of vaccination status, at the Fieldhouse. Please plan accordingly. Fans unable to attend can find live links on the Whitworth men's basketball schedule.
The Pirates: Whitworth (15-2), ranked 16th in today's D3hoops.com poll, won its first two road games since early December last weekend in Oregon.
Posting one of their most impressive balanced scoring efforts ever, the Pirates had eight players reach double figures in a 92-67 win at Lewis & Clark on Friday night. JT McDermott led the way with 16 points as Whitworth made 58.1% (36-62) of its shots from the field, 42.1% (8-19) from beyond the arc. The Pirates also finished with a 36-23 edge in rebounding. Jerry Twenge scored 14, while Garrett Paxton and Jake Holtz each had 11. Liam Fitzgerald, Miguel Lopez, Rowan Anderson and Jojo Anderson scored ten each. Fitzgerald led the Bucs with nine rebounds, while Lopez posted seven boards and five assists. Whitworth won its 15th straight game in the series.
Hitting the end of its energy reserves on Saturday with its fourth game in five days, Whitworth survived a close call at George Fox when Jojo Anderson hit a jumper with 2.1 seconds to play for an 80-78 victory. The Pirates had to rally from a seven-point, second half deficit to pull out the win. Whitworth made 62.5% (30-48) of its shots, but the tired legs showed up in free throw shooting (16-26, 61.5%) and in the fact that the Bruins got to more loose balls and took 16 more shots than the Pirates. JT McDermott led the team with 19 points, while Miguel Lopez posted a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. Anderson added 12 and Jake Holtz scored 11.
McDermott Honored: JT McDermott is the NWC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week (Jan. 24). He led Whitworth to four wins in five days, averaging 15.5 points while making 70.3% of his shot attempts. He added 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. He did this in a balanced offense that had five different players average double figures over those four wins.
Taking Offense: Whitworth leads the Northwest Conference in scoring average at 86.2 points per game, which ranks 24th in NCAA Division III. The Pirates are doing it with efficiency, making 52.1% of their field goals, which leads the NWC and ranks 2nd in NCAA DIII. JT McDermott leads the way, making 62.5% of his field goals, which leads the conference and ranks 20th in NCAA DIII.
Share and Share Alike: Whitworth leads the Northwest Conference (and ranks 16th in DIII) in assists per game in 2021-22, averaging 18.2 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 20th in DIII) in Assist-Turnover ratio (1.38).
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. Four Whitworth regulars are averaging between 10.9 and 13.5 points per game. JT McDermott leads (13.5 ppg), followed by Miguel Lopez (11.2), Garrett Paxton (11.3), and Liam Fitzgerald (10.9). Meanwhile, Rowan Anderson (8.8), Jake Holtz (8.6), Jojo Anderson (7.4) and Jerry Twenge (7.2) are not far behind. Seven different players have led the team in scoring in a game this season.
The Opponents: Willamette University is 5-11 overall and 2-6 in the NWC. The Bearcats have shown significant improvement after finishing 1-28 over the previous two seasons. Last weekend they lost 112-69 at home to Linfield on Friday and 93-69 at Pacific (Ore.) on Saturday. A big reason for the improvement is the emergence of forward Cedric Coward, a strong favorite to win the NWC Freshman of the Year award. He averages 18.1 points, 12.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.2 blocks per game. Senior wing Jonathan Watts contributes 13.5 points per game while making 45.6% of his three-point attempts. Whitworth defeated Willamette 94-81 in Salem on December 4th when the Pirates opened a 17-point halftime lead but had to withstand two Bearcat rallies in the second half. Garrett Paxton scored 22 points, while Miguel Lopez had 16 points and 14 rebounds.
D3hoops.com Poll: The Pirates are ranked 16th in this week's (Jan. 24) D3hoops.com top 25 regular season poll.
Whitworth has appeared in the D3hoops.com top-25 poll 179 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 383-77 (.832), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 191 of its last 213 (.896).
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 197-21 (.904) at home. Whitworth has won its last 15 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 108-26 (.805) away from home, 80-20 (.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 return to Oregon to take on Linfield and Pacific on Feb. 4-5.
