SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball team heads to California for three non-conference games, beginning with contests on Monday at Pomona-Pitzer (7:00 pm) and Tuesday at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (5:00 pm).
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links to this week's games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (5-1) split at home against Mary Hardin-Baylor and Belhaven last week.
The Pirates saw a 17-point lead early in the second half turn into a 12-point deficit with just over five minutes to play before visiting Mary Hardin-Baylor held on to hand Whitworth its first loss of the season 92-90 on Dec. 6. The Cru scored 60 points in the second half, making over 54% from the field and 57% from three-point range after halftime. Colton Looney led the Pirates with 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Ben Nyquist scored 20 points and added six assists and three steals. Stephen Behil finished with 19, including five three-pointers.
Whitworth fell behind early against Belhaven's full court press before taking charge in the second half of a 90-76 win on December 8th. After committing a dozen turnovers in the first half, the Bucs reduced the number to seven after halftime. Behil led the way with 20 points, while Nyquist filled the scoresheet with 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals. Caden Bateman posted the Pirates' first double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Looney finished with a dozen points, ten in the second half.
Stingy Pirates: Defense has been the early calling card for the 2025-26 Whitworth men's basketball team. The Bucs lead the NWC and rank third in NCAA Div. III in field goal percentage defense (33.7%) They lead the conference and rank fifth in DIII in three-point percentage defense (23.2%). Whitworth also leads the NWC in scoring defense (67.5 ppg).
Whitworth has also been dominant on the boards. The Pirates are second in NCAA Division III in defensive rebounds per game (34.8) and fifth in total rebounds per game (47.0).
Iron Man: Whitworth senior post Ty Edwards has started 81 consecutive games for the Pirates. It is the longest active starting streak since Whitworth Heritage Gallery Hall of Fame member George Valle started all 116 games of his career from 2013 through 2016.
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: Pomona-Pitzer is 4-3 overall and 1-1 in the SCIAC heading into Monday's contest. The Sagehens are coming off an 80-68 loss at Chapman on December 6th. They are 3-2 against Northwest Conference opponents this season. Head coach Charles Katsiaficas is in his 38th season and has the second most career victories (592) of any active Division III coach. Sophomore forward Charlie Hutchison leads the team in both scoring (15.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.1 rpg). Senior guard Kyle Jasper adds 12.7 points per game while making 44.2% of his three-pointers and 2.5 treys per contest. Whitworth last played Pomona-Pitzer on Nov. 11, 2021 and defeated the Sagehens 73-58 in Claremont, California.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is 9-0 and ranked 19th in the latest D3hoops.com top-25 poll. The Stags won 70-59 at Whittier in their most recent game and they are 5-0 against NWC schools this season. Last season CMS went 20-8 and won the SCIAC tournament to advance to the NCAA DIII playoffs. Ken Scalmanini is 480-208 in his 27th year coaching the Stags. CMS has a dynamic back court combo in juniors Reid Jones and Will Householter. Jones averages 16.8 points and 5.4 steals per game while making 42.4% of his three pointers. Householter contributes 16.7 points per game. The last time the teams played, the Stags defeated the Pirates 69-67 in the second round of the 2024 NCAA DIII tournament at Cal Lutheran.
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 19 seasons) the Pirates are 453-104 (.813), 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 229-30 (.884) 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 14 seasons. Since the start of the 11-12 season, Whitworth is 133-42 (.760) away from home, 104-28 (.788) 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 122-40 as Whitworth's head coach and currently ranks fourth among active Division III coaches in winning percentage (.753). 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 finish off its California trip at Chapman on Thursday, Dec. 18.
