WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Visiting Whitworth rolled to an 87-57 win over Whitman in the 2025-26 season's first men's basketball Battle of Whits on Tuesday night at the Sherwood Center.

Stephen Behil posted his second double-double of the season for the Pirates (9-3 overall, 3-0 Northwest Conference), who earned their biggest win over the Blues (6-6, 1-2) since a 104-71 victory on January 18, 2011 in Spokane.

Whitworth never trailed in the opening half, opening an 11-4 lead which included five points by Colton Looney.  After Whitman got within 13-11 on a basket by Mehmet Bener, the Pirates responded with a 16-3 run to go ahead 30-14 on Kobe Parlin's three-pointer.  Behil's three-pointer gave Whitworth its largest lead of the half (36-18) with 1:39 to play before the Bucs took a 39-25 lead into the locker rooms.  Behil had 11 first half points and Whitworth made 16 of 33 (48.5%) from the field while holding the Blues to 9-29 (31%) from the floor.  The Pirates also had a 20-13 advantage in rebounds.

Whitworth continued to pull away in the second half.  Behil's three-pointer gave the Bucs their first 20-point lead (52-32) just over five minutes into the second period.  Parlin's three-pointer stretched the margin to 61-35 and Behil's three-point play with just under nine minutes to go moved the margin to 70-41.  Ben Nyquist's steal and layup led to the largest lead of the game (75-41). 

Behil finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds, making 10 of 14 from the floor and 3-5 from beyond the arc.  Nyquist had 14 points, three assists and two steals.  Parlin finished with 13 points and five rebounds.  Whitworth finished the game 32-67 (48%) from the floor, including 10-24 (41.7%) from three-point range.  Whitman entered the game with the league's best rebound margin, but the Pirates finished with a 43-35 edge on the boards. 

Bener was the only player for the Blues to reach double figures with 14 points.  Whitworth leads the NWC in defensive field goal percentage and defensive three-point percentage and held Whitman to only 29% (18-62) from the field and 23% (7-30) from beyond the arc.

Whitworth will head to Oregon to battle Linfield on Saturday looking to extend its winning streak to five games.