SPOKANE, Wash. –Whitworth heads west this weekend to open the Northwest Conference men's basketball slate at Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran. Friday's game at UPS tips at 8:00 pm, while Saturday's contest at PLU is scheduled for 6:00 pm. Both are part of women's-men's doubleheaders. The games can be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230 am and on the internet at KSBN.net.
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links to this weekend's games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (3-3) remained even this season with a split at the Rocky Mountain Classic, hosted by Colorado College over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Carleton College dominated the first half, taking an 18-point lead at the break, on the way to a 76-59 win over Whitworth in the Rocky Mountain Classic first round game. The Knights shot 54.8% in the first 20 minutes and 50.8% for the entire game, while holding the Pirates to 31.2% in the first half and 35.3% in the game. JT McDermott had 19 points, while Rowan Anderson added 14 points. Jake Holtz finished with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds, but Carleton had a 46-37 advantage on the boards.
Whitworth bounced back with a stronger performance against host Colorado College in the Rocky Mountain consolation game. The Pirates built a 12-point lead at halftime and led by 18 points with less than ten minutes to play before surviving a strong challenge in a 74-65 win over the Tigers. Four Whitworth players finished in double figures, led by 16 points and seven rebounds from Holtz. McDermott and Jerry Twenge scored 13 apiece and Michael Smith added 12. Anderson dished six assists.
The Opponents: Puget Sound is one of the surprise teams of the NWC so far this season. The Loggers (4-2) are picked eighth in the conference coaches poll after coming off a 9-16 record in 2021-22. UPS went 1-1 at the David Wells Classic last weekend in Claremont, California, losing 82-48 to CMS, but knocking off 12th-ranked Pomona-Pitzer 79-77. Aubrey Shelton is in his fifth year coaching the Loggers, who average 75.0 ppg while giving up 76.8 ppg. Sophomore guard Liam Ruttledge puts up 13.2 points while making 51.6% of his three-pointers. Senior forward Mussie Teclemariam contributes 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per contest. Last season Whitworth swept Puget Sound, winning 93-77 at home and 81-69 in Tacoma to extend the winning streak over the Loggers to eight in a row.
Pacific Lutheran (2-2) is coming off a share of the NWC title last season after finishing 18-8 overall and 13-3 in the NWC. Chad Murray is in his sixth season as head coach of the Lutes, earning NWC Coach of the Year in 2021-22. PLU, averaging 72.0 points while allowing 64.0 points, is picked third in the NWC coaches poll. Cal Lutheran defeated the Lutes 67-62 on November 19th and Montana St.-Northern edged the Lutes 51-49 on November 20th, both in Parkland. Junior post Brandon Riedel averages 13.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Senior wing Jordan Thomas, a first team All-NWC honoree last winter, contributes 8.5 points and 6.0 rebounds and leads the team in assists (13), blocks (7) and steals (5). Whitworth took two of three games from PLU last year, winning 97-69 at home, losing 64-48 on the road, and winning 80-72 in Spokane in the NWC semifinals.
Pirates picked to win: Whitworth is listed at the top of the 2022-23 Northwest Conference coaches poll with seven first place votes and 63 points. The Pirates are coming off 22-5 record in 2021-22, including a share of the NWC regular season title (13-3). Whitman, who Whitworth defeated in the NWC tournament championship game, is second in the poll with two first place votes and 56 points.
The Graduates: Whitworth's three graduate students on the 2022-23 roster play significant roles. JT McDermott is back for his final year of eligibility after earning first team All-Northwest Conference recognition in 2021-22 after he averaged 14.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. Rowan Anderson is in his third season as a starting point guard. He put up 8.9 points and 3.3 assists per game last winter. Michael Smith, a former high school teammate of McDermott, has transferred to Whitworth from Sonoma State (NCAA DII), where he started 47 games in two seasons.
Sweet 16: With its win over Lewis & Clark in the 2021-22 regular season finale, Whitworth extended its school record for consecutive seasons with at least 20 victories to 16 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.
Whitworth's streak of 20-win seasons is now the current longest in all of NCAA Division III.
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 16 seasons) the Pirates are 393-83 (.826), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 198 of its last 222 (.892).
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 201-21 (.905) at home. Whitworth has won its last 22 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 109-32 (.773) away from home, 81-23 (.779) 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 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: Damion Jablonski is in his 12th season on the Pirate coaching staff in 2022-23, and his fourth as head coach of the Pirates. His record was 58-16 as Whitworth's head coach heading into this season. Jablonski has led Whitworth to the NCAA Division III tournament twice in his previous three years, the only non-tournament year was due to Covid-19. 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. Whitworth finished 22-5 overall and 13-3 in the NWC in 2021-22 to once again share the regular season title before winning the conference tournament.
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 play an exhibition game against a team of Pirate alumni on December 10th before hosting the Quality Inn Classic on December 20-21. Saint John's (Minn.), Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) and Linfield will visit the Fieldhouse.
