By: Cody Wright
SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball team heads to Texas for three mid-week games against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference opponents (SCAC) to wrap up the non-conference schedule. The Pirates visit Southwestern at 5:00 pm on Monday, Schreiner at 3:00 pm on Wednesday and Texas Lutheran at 1:00 pm on Thursday (all times Pacific).
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links to this week's games. Please note that a fee may be required to stream the matchup against Schreiner.
The Pirates: Whitworth earned two hard-fought victories last week against a pair of formidable non-conference opponents. The Pirates' 6-0 start has landed them the 15th spot in the latest D3hoops.com top 25 poll.
The Pirates survived a game winning three-point shot attempt to beat Belhaven 66-64 on Friday. Garret Long's free throw put Whitworth up by four with under a minute to go before Belhaven's Demarcus Powe nailed a pull-up three pointer. After splitting a pair of free throws at the other end, Powe got a shot from the corner to win the game, but it rimmed out. Stephen Behil led the Pirates with 15 points on 4-8 shooting. Long added 10 points and nine rebounds and Ben Nyquist had 10 points off the bench. Whitworth shot 39.7% from the field.
Whitworth earned a comeback 77-73 comeback win over visiting Hardin-Simmons on Saturday. The Pirates trailed at halftime for the first time this season and overcame a nine-point deficit to get the win. Whitworth had a season-low four turnovers and held the Cowboys to just one made field goal in the final four minutes of play. Ty Edwards and Jake Holtz each made a pair of free throws in the final minute to put the game on ice. Holtz led with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Behil added 16 points. Edwards scored a season-high 14 points on 5-8 from the field.
The Opponents: Southwestern (0-6) hosts Whitworth looking to get its first win of the season in a battle of Pirates. The Pirates dropped their most recent matchup 106-80 to Howard Payne last week. Senior forward Brock Luechtefeld is coming off a 31-point, eight rebound performance while leading the team in both points (13.7) and rebounds (7.7) per game. Opponents are outscoring Southwestern by an average scoring margin of 14. The last matchup between these Pirate teams was during the 2014 season when Whitworth won 77-57.
Schreiner is off to a 5-1 start leading up to three games against NWC opponents. The Mountaineers travel to Pacific (Ore.) and George Fox this week before hosting Whitworth on Wednesday. Senior center Kamden Ross is a force in the paint, averaging 23.3 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. Ross recently broke the SCAC all-time career rebound record and has been named SCAC player of the week twice this season. Senior guard Dylan Mackey orchestrates the Schreiner offense by putting up 17.8 points and 5.7 assists per game while sharpshooter Beau Cervantes is fourth in DIII with 3.83 three-point field goals made per game. The Mountaineers have shot the ball at a 50.5% clip from the field thus far, ranking 10th in DIII. Whitworth and Schreiner faced off on November 19th last season with the Pirates coming out on top 88-71.
Texas Lutheran (2-6) comes into its matchup with Whitworth after dropping its last four games. The Bulldogs fell to Letourneau 88-74 before a 77-66 loss to Texas-Dallas last week. Offensive production comes from each position in the Bulldog's lineup as five players average double digits in scoring. Junior guards Mason Wallace and Trey Blackmore each average a team-leading 13.1 points per game, with Wallace also leading the team with 6.8 rebounds per game. Whitworth and Texas Lutheran last faced off in 2016, with the Pirates winning 95-87.
Starting Hot: With wins over Belhaven and Hardin-Simmons, the Pirates are off to their first 6-0 start since the 2017-18 season. During that season Whitworth started 8-0, went on to win the NWC tournament and finished with a 24-4 overall record.
During the Pirates' win streak, they have posted an impressive 49.5% field goal percentage and a 16.7 average scoring margin, each ranking second in the NWC. Whitworth also ranks first in the NWC in rebound margin (10.7).
An Unstoppable Force: Jake Holtz, in his fifth year as a Pirate, is poised to build on a stellar 2023-24 season in which he averaged 16.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists and was named second team All-NWC. Through six games this season, he averages 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.3 steals per game, leading the team in points, rebounds and assists per game. Holtz has scored over 1,100 points during his Whitworth career as he continues to stuff the stat sheet and be problematic for opposing defenses. He has been named NWC Player of the Week two times this season.
Long Time Coming: After two seasons at Carroll College and an injury riddled 2023-24 season, senior Garrett Long is coming into his own as a leader at point guard for the Pirates. Long showed his potential after four starts in the 2024 postseason after being inserted into the starting lineup due to an injury. He posted 12 points in the NWC Final against Whitman and had 11 points and seven rebounds at Cal Lutheran in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Now in the full-time starting point guard role, Long is averaging 14.3 points per game along with 5.8 rebounds, and three assists per game. He is tied for first in the NWC in assist/turnover ratio (3.0). In the win over Cal Lutheran on November 21st, he scored a career-high 29 points on 11-16 shooting. Long also leads the Pirates' effort to pressure opposing ball handlers on defense, grabbing 1.5 steals per game.
Junior Leaders: The Pirates continue to reload after losing key contributors from last season such as NWC Player of the Year Jojo Anderson and seniors Jerry Twenge and Sullivan Menard. This year, the load falls on the shoulders of five juniors who have stepped into impactful roles. Junior sharpshooter Stephen Behil stepped into the starting lineup and is averaging 14.7 points per game on 43.6% shooting from beyond the arc. Diego Jaques has proved to be a strong attacker for the Pirates, averaging an efficient 11.8 points per game. Starting at the post for the second straight season is junior Ty Edwards who is averaging 7.5 points and five rebounds per game while shooting a team-leading 66.7% from the field.
The production hasn't just come from the starting lineup, as Colton Looney and Ben Nyquist have demonstrated the depth of the Pirate rotation. Nyquist averages one steal per game and has been strong on the glass at the off-guard position. Colton Looney is shooting an impressive 42.9% from beyond the arc while averaging five points and 2.2 rebounds.
Pirates picked to win: Whitworth is listed at the top of the 2024-25 Northwest Conference coaches poll with six first place votes and 61 points. The Pirates are coming off a 20-9 record in 2023-24, tying Whitman for first place in the regular season but defeating them to win the conference tournament championship. Whitman is tied for second place with Puget Sound with 52 points each. Puget Sound received two first place votes to Whitman's one.
Nearly Two Decades of Dominance: Since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (over 17 seasons) the Pirates are 434-99 (.814), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 217 of its last 246 (.882).
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 220-27 (.89) 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 122-40 (.753) away from home, 93-26 (.781) in true road games.
Tune in: Whitworth's men's basketball games are streamed live at whitworthpirates.com from the "watch" link for home games and the "listen" link for road games on the men's basketball schedule page. Pirate basketball games are called by Bud Nameck who is in his tenth season as the voice of Whitworth basketball. An Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Famer, Nameck has more than 30 years of experience calling college basketball at Gonzaga University and Washington State.
The Coach: Damion Jablonski is in his 14th season on the Pirate coaching staff in 2024-25, and his sixth as head coach of the Pirates. He is 101-35 as Whitworth's head coach. Jablonski has led Whitworth to the NCAA Division III tournament in each season as the head coach, 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. Jablonski is joined by assistant coaches Nick Sullivan, a former graduate assistant at Gonzaga, and Seth Hall, a former NWC Player of the Year at Pacific Lutheran.
With the win over Belhaven on December 6th, Damion Jablonski earned his 100th win as a head coach.
Coming Up Next: Whitworth will open Northwest Conference play with matchups against Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound on January 3-4 at Whitworth Fieldhouse.
