By: Cody Wright
SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University women's basketball team hits the road this weekend to visit Puget Sound on Friday (8:00pm) and Pacific Lutheran (6:00pm) on Saturday. Both games are scheduled as the second half of men's-women's doubleheaders.
Check the Whitworth women's basketball schedule for live links to this week's games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (6-11, 3-5 Northwest Conference) battled the top two teams in the conference at Whitworth Fieldhouse last week and could not come away with a win.
The Pirates fell 80-43 to sixth ranked Whitman on Tuesday night. Whitman led 20-12 after one quarter but poured it on in the second. The Blues outscored Whitworth 22-8 and made eight of 12 field goal attempts to take a 42-20 lead at halftime. The Pirates held tough in the third quarter and stayed even after three buckets from distance. Whitman ramped up the defensive effort in the fourth quarter and held the Bucs to just six points. Ashlyn Peterson led the Pirates with 14 points, five rebounds and four steals. Mya Bair had ten points and eight rebounds. Whitworth shot 26.8% (15-56) from the floor, its lowest mark of the season.
On Saturday, the Pirates dropped their fourth straight game in a 76-59 loss to Linfield. Whitworth started slow but ripped off a 17-2 run to take a 17-7 lead. The Wildcats closed the gap at the end of the first quarter and then outscored the Pirates 10-3 to start the second. Ashlyn Peterson hit a pair of free throws to get within 35-31 at halftime. Mya Bair stuffed the stat sheet and had a double-double in the first half with ten points and 11 boards. Linfield went on to outscore the Pirates 41-28 in the second half to pull away. Bair tied her career highs in both points (17) and rebounds (14). Peterson added 16 points, six rebounds and five assists. Whitworth shot 31.8% from the field and 19.2% (5-26) from distance.
The Opponents: Puget Sound (5-12 overall, 4-4 NWC) hosts Whitworth looking to end a three-game losing streak. The Loggers fell to George Fox 75-61 on Friday and fell short 63-61 at Willamette on Saturday. Freshman guard Carmen Cruz is the only player to average double figure scoring numbers with 10.3 points per game. Senior guard Addison Reardon is close behind at 9.5 and Paige Oh puts up 8.2 points per game. The Loggers keep their players fresh and substitute frequently with 11 players averaging over 10 minutes per game. Whitworth lost to Puget Sound in their first meeting on January 4th, 92-75. The Pirates haven't beaten the Loggers since March 7th, 2021.
Pacific Lutheran (7-10) will battle Whitworth after winning its last three games to improve to 4-4 in the NWC. The Lutes beat Lewis & Clark 61-52 last Friday before taking down Pacific 61-50 on Saturday. PLU will take on first-place Whitman on Friday before Whitworth visits on Saturday. The Lutes struggle to get shots to fall (32.9%) and remain the lowest scoring team in the conference (51.9). They have attacked the glass throughout conference play and have outrebounded opponents 127-82 during their winning streak. Junior guard Sydney Reisner leads the team with 11.8 points per game and shoots 32.9% from the three-point line. Freshman guard Brook Samura is second on the team in scoring (8.5) and has scored in double-figures each of her last five games. The Pirates have won six straight games against the Lutes, including a 56-53 win on January 3rd at Whitworth Fieldhouse in their first matchup this season.
NWC Standings: Whitman (8-0) remains undefeated in conference play and sits atop the standings. Linfield and George Fox are each 5-3 and tied for second place. Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound sit at 4-4 in a battle for fourth while Pacific (3-5), Whitworth (3-5) and Willamette (3-5) all look to remain within striking distance.
From Downtown: The Pirates have not been shy putting up shots from beyond the arc this season. The Bucs average 25.8 three-point attempts per game, ranking first in the NWC. They are making these shots at a 27.6% clip and their 7.1 three-point field goals made per game rank second in the NWC. Ashlyn Peterson leads the Pirates with 27 three-pointers and Alex Goetz is close behind with 24.
The Charity Stripe: In NWC games this season, the Pirates have gotten to the free throw line at an impressive rate. During that stretch, Whitworth shot 163 free throw attempts, 16 more than the next team and made 130 of them, 21 more than the team below them. Their 79.8 team free-throw percentage ranks first in the conference. Whitworth's effectiveness at the charity stripe may be a key to upcoming conference matchups.
Lone Vet: With the Pirates' new look roster, junior guard Mya Bair is the only player to have previously started a game in a Whitworth uniform. Bair started 24 of 25 games for the Pirates in the 2023-24 season while putting up 7.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Her energy, effort and experience show on both sides of the ball while leading a fresh team looking to make its mark. This season, she is stuffing the stat sheet, averaging 9.3 points, a team-leading 8.5 rebounds (second in the NWC), 2.8 assists (ninth in the NWC), one block (fifth in the NWC) and 1.9 steals (tied for fifth in the NWC) per game. Bair tied career-highs with 17 points and 14 rebounds against Linfield on January 24th.
The Maestro: Ashlyn Peterson has shown her ability to orchestrate the offense in an impactful freshman season. Peterson's 68 total assists and four assists per game rank second in the NWC. Along with her ability to distribute, she is fifth in the NWC in scoring and leads the Pirates with 14.3 points per game. Her 1.9 steals per game are tied for fifth in the conference and she is second in free throw percentage (.831). She has been the top scorer for the Pirates in nine of 17 games this season and rarely comes off the court, leading the conference in minutes per game (36.4).
Tune in: Whitworth's home women'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 women'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: Kenny Love is in his third season as the Whitworth women's basketball coach. He moved over from the men's coaching staff in 2021 where he was an assistant coach since 2017. Love has a career head coaching record of 25-42 at Whitworth. Love himself is a former Pirate player who earned first team All-NWC recognition three times and was the 2015 NWC Player of the Year.
Looking ahead: The Pirates will take a trip to Oregon to battle Lewis & Clark on February 7th before taking on Willamette February 8th.
