SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball team hosts Bethany College (W.V.) on Thursday in the second game of the season. Thursday's contest, scheduled for 11:00 am in the Whitworth Fieldhouse, is the second Spokane Public Schools game. Nearly 1,500 public school children from Spokane are expected to attend.
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links to this week's games.
Tickets: Digital tickets are required for entrance to the Whitworth Fieldhouse for all fans. Tickets can be purchased in advance using the Hometown Ticketing App. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for senior adults, non-Whitworth students and children. Whitworth students, as well as faculty and staff, get free admission by using an ID number.
Watch on FloCollege: Like the rest of the Northwest Conference, Whitworth's home athletic events will be steamed through FloCollege in 2025-26. Fans can sign up to watch Pirate sports on the FloCollege portal. Registration is $116 for an annual subscription or $20 per month. Those who register with a .edu email address get a significant discount.
Inland Northwest Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Bud Nameck, familiar in Spokane as the KXLY channel 4 sports director for over 20 years and the longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his 11th season as the voice of the Pirates in 2025. He was the voice of Washington State University men's basketball for 22 years and spent that same amount of time on the Cougar football broadcasts – the final three on play by play. He is a longtime resident of the Inland Northwest who began his career as the Sports Information Director and radio voice of Gonzaga University basketball and baseball in the 1980s.
The Pirates: Whitworth (1-0) opened its season with a dominating win. The Bucs had six players reach double figures in scoring in a 92-47 victory over Walla Walla University last Saturday. Colton Looney led the way with 14 points and eight rebounds. He made 4 of 8 from three-point range. Dylan Westermeyer added 13 points off the bench, while Ben Nyquist scored 11. Stephen Behil, Caden Bateman and Jamison Atwood all scored 10 apiece. The Pirates outrebounded the Wolves 55-38 and held Walla Walla to 28.1% shooting from the field. Whitworth shot 45.5% from the floor and had assists on 25 of 35 baskets.
The Opponents: Bethany College, from Bethany, West Virginia, lost 67-66 at Kenyon (Ohio) in its season opener on Saturday. The Bison play in the Presidents' Athletic Conference and they are coming off an 7-18 record in 2024-25, including a 2-18 record in the PAC. New head coach Brandon Thorsen is looking to lead Bethany to greater success in 2025-26. The Bison return starting guards Troy Hixson and Ryan Reasbeck from last season. First-year guard Jaden Stewart led the team with 17 points, all in the second half, at Kenyon. Whitworth and Bethany have never played in men's basketball.
Pirates picked to win: Whitworth is listed at the top of the 2025-26 Northwest Conference coaches poll with eight first place votes and 64 points. The Pirates are coming off a 22-4 record in 2024-25 and a Northwest Conference title with a 13-3 mark. Whitman got one first place vote and has 53 points for second in the poll. PLU and Puget Sound (44 points apiece) tied for third.
Nearly Two Decades of Dominance: Since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (over 18 seasons) the Pirates are 449-103 (.814), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 233 of its last 265 (.879).
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 227-29 (.889) 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 131-42 (.757) away from home, 102-28 (.785) in true road games.
The Coach: Damion Jablonski is in his 15th season on the Pirate coaching staff in 2025-26, and his seventh as head coach of the Pirates. He is 118-39 as Whitworth's head coach. Jablonski has led Whitworth to the NCAA Division III tournament four times as the head coach, the only non-tournament years was due to Covid-19 and last winter when the Bucs were upset in the conference semifinals. 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 canceled. 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.
Coming Up Next: Whitworth will travel to Minnesota for games at Gustavus Adolphus (Nov. 20) and Saint John's (Nov. 22).
