By: Cody Wright
SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth women's basketball squad heads to the west side this weekend to close out the 2025-2026 season. The Pirates visit Pacific Lutheran on Friday at 5:30 pm before battling Puget Sound on Saturday at 3:00 pm. Both games will stream live on FloCollege and can be heard for free at whitworthpirates.com.
Check the Whitworth women's basketball schedule for live links to this week's games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (5-18 overall, 4-10 NWC) split two games against a pair of short-handed opponents.
On Friday, Addyson Gallatin led the Bucs to a season sweep of Lewis & Clark with a 76-58 win. Gallatin posted career highs in both points (27) and assists (7) to go with 11 rebounds. Whitworth jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The Pirates dominated the glass (51-26), potentially due to the absence of L&C's Lauren Frederickson, the conference's leading rebounder. Ashlyn Peterson added 19 points and five assists while Ava DePew grabbed 12 rebounds. Whitworth shot 47.8% (11-23) from three-point range, the second-best percentage of the season.
Visiting George Fox beat the Bucs 70-59 on Saturday. The Pirates battled back to a five-point deficit in the fourth quarter, but a late Bruin run cut the comeback short. Despite missing two top scorers, Kylie Ritter's output of 28 points pushed GFU to a win. Whitworth shot 38.6% from the field while the Bruins shot an efficient 54% from the field and made seven of 14 three-point attempts. Gallatin led the Bucs in scoring for the second straight game with 15 points and another career-high, this time with 12 rebounds.
Stepping up: Sophomore post Addyson Gallatin has come on strong in the second half of the season. After scoring in double figures in just one of the team's first nine games, Gallatin has reached that mark in seven of the last 10 games. Her career performances this weekend against Lewis & Clark and George Fox earned her NWC women's basketball Student-Athlete of the Week.
Leading the Way: Sophomore point guard Ashlyn Peterson is following up her 2024-25 NWC Rookie of the Year campaign with another standout season. Peterson currently leads the conference in scoring (17.0 ppg), is tied for first in three-point field goals made per game (2.1) and total three-pointers (48). For the second consecutive season, she also leads the conference in minutes per game (35.0).
Stat Sheet Stuffer: Pirate guard Ava DePew is making a big impact as a first-year Pirate. She is second in the conference in rebounds per game (8.0), third in assists (3.3) and second in assists to turnover ratio (1.3).
Watch on FloCollege: All of Whitworth's home and Northwest Conference athletic events will be streamed through FloCollege in 2025-26. Fans can sign up to watch Pirate sports on the FloCollege portal. Registration is $108 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.
Listen to Road Games: Fans can tune in online and listen to Pirate road games for free at WhitworthPirates.com. Bud Nameck will provide play by play when Whitworth is away from the Fieldhouse.
The Opponents: Pacific Lutheran comes into this week with a 2-21 overall record and a 1-13 mark in conference play with one weekend to play. The Lutes' lone conference win came on January 20th against Lewis & Clark (78-58). PLU ranks eighth in the NWC in scoring (55.5) and allows 74.1 points per game on the defensive end, most in the league. Guards Sydney Reisner and Lillie Williams lead the offense for the Lutes, posting 13.8 points and 10.0 points per game, respectively. Whitworth has won eight consecutive games against PLU, including a 73-65 win on January 24th in Spokane.
Puget Sound (18-5, 11-3 NWC) heads into the final week of the regular season with a top three seed in the conference tournament locked up. The Loggers have the second highest scoring offense in the NWC (64.3) and the best scoring defense (53.3). They are strong on the glass as well, leading in the conference in combined team rebounds per game (42.3). Sophomore guard Carmen Cruz leads PS in scoring at 12.7 points per game, the only Logger to average in double figures. They find success by committee with nine players playing at least 15 minutes per game. PS has beaten the Pirates in nine straight games, including a 68-52 win in Spokane on January 23rd.
Young Bucs: For the second consecutive season, the Whitworth women do not have a senior on their roster. Of the 15 players, 12 are freshmen or sophomores. Led by a strong young core, the Bucs have significant experience to build from as they look to take another jump this season.
NWC Race: Linfield (13-1), Whitman (12-2), Puget Sound (11-3) and George Fox (9-5) have all clinched spot in the Northwest Conference Tournament. With two games remaining, the host site is yet to be determined.
The Coach: Kenny Love is in his fourth 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 32-66 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.
Up Next: Check whitworthpirates.com for women's basketball updates and the upcoming 2026-27 schedule.
