SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth women's basketball team will spend Thanksgiving weekend in California with games on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The Pirates play Caltech on Saturday (1:000 pm) at UC Santa Cruz and then they play the UCSC Banana Slugs on Sunday (2:00 pm).
Check the Whitworth women's basketball schedule for live links to this weekend's action.
The Pirates: Whitworth (2-1) went 1-1 at the Northwest Classic in Kirkland, Washington over the weekend.
The Pirates lost 69-64 to the host Eagles on Friday night. Whitworth played a solid first half and were tied 33-33 at halftime. Northwest was able to pull away slightly in the second half and held off a late Pirate rally. Olivia Mayer scored a career-high 24 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and dished three assists to lead the Bucs. Kimberly Dewey added 16 points. Whitworth made 34.4% from the field and only 3-21 (14.3%) from three-point range. The Eagles also finished with a 47-38 edge in rebounds.
Whitworth dominated the second half in Saturday's 86-64 win over Haskell Indian Nations University. The Pirates led 39-38 at halftime, but outscored the Indians 47-26 in the final 20 minutes. Whitworth's offensive numbers improved to 47.7% (31-65) from the field and 40% (8-20) from three-point range. The Pirates absolutely dominated the backboards, outrebounding HINU 60-28. Mayer had another double-double with 21 points and 15 rebounds, while Dewey scored 16 points and grabbed seven boards. Quincy McDeid finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. Madison Hagen and Alyssa Fitzgerald came off the bench for 10 points apiece.
The Opponents: Caltech, a member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, is 1-3 this season after dropping a pair of games in Oregon last weekend. The Beavers fell 74-49 at Pacific (Ore.) and 53-45 at Linfield. Caltech is coming off an 11-14 record in 2021-22, including a 6-10 SCIAC mark. Sophomore forward Katherine Edwards leads the Beavers with 16.3 points per game. Senior forward Sahana Saikumar was a first team All-SCIAC honoree last season. Whitworth last played Caltech in November of 2012, winning 105-26.
UC Santa Cruz just missed qualifying for the 2022 NCAA Division III tournament last season, losing to Christopher Newport in the championship of the Coast-to-Coast conference playoffs. The Banana Slugs are off to a 5-0 start in 2022-23, including Saturday's 77-46 win at Cal Maritime. Four players average in double figures for UCSC, including senior forward Amanda Inserra, who averages 14.6 points and makes 48.8% of her three-pointers. Senior forward Kaylee Murphy averages a double-double of 11.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Whitworth last played UCSC in November of 2016 and won 67-65 in Spokane.
McDeid Gets It Done: Quincy McDeid has been a part of the Whitworth starting lineup since her first year. McDeid has started 57 of the 61 games over her four seasons and has never missed a contest in that time. McDeid has averaged double figures in scoring, with a career scoring average of 12.4 points per game. She has 754 points and has a good chance to become the 14th player in Pirate women's basketball history to surpass 1,000 career points.
Mayer Makes it Happen: Olivia Mayer is already off to a better start then her phenomenal first season at Whitworth. She leads the team in scoring (20.0 ppg) and rebounding (14.7 rpg). She has made 17-17 from the free throw line.
Last season Mayer averaged 11.8 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game. She led the team in steals (32). In just Northwest Conference games only, her stats were even better with averages 13.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game against NWC opponents. She claimed honorable mention All-NWC recognition.
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 against Walla Walla and California Lutheran 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 eighth 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: Kenny Love is in his first season guiding the Pirate women. He moved over from the men's coaching staff, where he was an assistant coach since 2017 and was involved in all aspects of the men's team operation, including scouting, recruiting, budget management, conditioning and summer camp organization. Love is a former Pirate player who claimed first team All-NWC recognition three times and was the 2015 NWC Player of the Year.
Looking Ahead: Whitworth will open Northwest Conference play December 2-3 at Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran.
