SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball team travels to the Land of 10,000 Lakes this week for a pair of challenging road non-conference games. The Pirates will play at Gustavus Adolphus on Thursday at 5:00 pm (PST) and at Saint John's on Saturday at 3:00 pm (PST). The schools were regular season co-champions of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Conference in 2024-25.
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links to this week's games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (2-0) defeated visiting Bethany (W.V.) 94-72 last Thursday morning in front of 1,500 Spokane fifth graders on Spokane Public Schools Day at the Whitworth Fieldhouse. The Bucs outscored the Bison 45-29 in the second half and held the visitors to only 30% shooing in the game, 19% (7-37) from three-point range. Ben Nyquist scored a career-high 20 points, while Dylan Westermeyer came off the bench for his career-high of 17 points. Caden Bateman finished with 14 points and nine boards and Ty Edwards just missed a double-double with nine points and ten rebounds. Whitworth had 21 assists on 33 made baskets.
It's very early in the season, but the Pirates are averaging 93.0 points per game and outscoring opponents by 33.5 points per contest. Whitworth has held opponents to only 29.2% shooting from the field on defense and has assists on 46 of 68 made baskets (67.7%).
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 Opponents: Gustavus Adolphus is 2-0 so far this season after defeating Aurora 84-79 and Rockford 95-49 last weekend. The Gusties are coming off a 21-5 record in 2024-25 that included a MIAC co-championship (15-1). Gustavus was knocked off in the MAIC tournament semifinals by Carleton and did not get an invitation to the Div. III tournament. Head coach Justin DeGrood (4th season) was the 2025 MAIC Coach of the Year. Junior G Myles Barnett was first team All-MIAC in 2025 and has averaged 16.0 ppg this season. Sophomore F Andrew Quam is leading the team with an average of 17.0 points per game through two contests. Whitworth is 1-1 all-time against the Gusties. The last meeting came on Dec. 29, 2008 and the Pirates won 79-58. The first meeting was in the first round of the NCAA Div. III tournament in 2002, a 65-55 Gusties victory that catapulted Gustavus on a run to the national championship game.
Saint John's is 2-1 this season. After opening with a narrow 90-86 loss at national power Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the Johnnies defeated Central 74-71 and Simpson 85-66 at home last weekend. Eleventh-year head coach Pat McKenzie has led SJU to five MIAC titles in the last seven seasons, including 2024-25 when the Johnnies finished 25-4 overall and 15-1 in the MIAC. They won the league tournament and reached the second round of the NCAA DIII playoffs. SJU graduated all five starters from that squad, but first-year guard Peyton Podany has been a revelation, averaging 16.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game through three contests. Whitworth defeated the Johnnies 65-56 in Spokane on Dec. 20, 2022 in the first-ever game between the two schools.
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.
Two Decades of Dominance: Since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (over 18 seasons) the Pirates are 450-103 (.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 228-29 (.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 13 seasons. 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 119-39 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 take a break for Thanksgiving before hosting Mary Hardin-Baylor and Bellhaven on December 6th and 8th, respectively.
