HOUSTON – Whitworth University could not overcome 30 minutes of cold shooting and came up just short in its comeback attempt against Trinity University (Texas) in the first round of the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament on Friday evening on the campus of the University of Saint Thomas.  Trailing by 20 points with under ten minutes to play, the Pirates cut the margin to three points and had a shot at a game-tying three pointer in the final 40 seconds before the Tigers hung on to win 71-63.

Whitworth finishes 22-6 while Trinity (22-6) advances to the second round against the winner of UST vs. Belhaven.

The Pirates never led and the game was tied only twice at 2-2 and 5-5.  After that second tie the Tigers scored eight straight points, going up 13-5 on a basket by Ben Estis.  Whitworth trimmed the margin to 13-9 on a shot by Kobe Parlin before the Tigers took their first double-digit lead when Joshua Chesney drained a three-pointer to stretch it out to 21-11.  Meanwhile the Pirates were unable to hit open looks against Trinity's zone defense.  When the Tiger's added back-to-back treys later in the period, including another by Chesney, they had opened a 31-15 margin.  Trinity took that 16-point lead into halftime at 38-22.

Whitworth was only 9 of 35 (26%) from the field in the first half, 1-11 (9%) from three-point range.  The Tigers were 14 of 34 (41%), 7-15 (47%) from beyond the arc, led by Chesney who had 16 points on 4 of 5 three-point attempts.

The Pirates worked hard to cut into the deficit over the first ten minutes of the second half, not making much headway until Caden Bateman's put-back basket trimmed the deficit to 46-34.  Trinity answered with an 8-0 run to go ahead 54-34 with only 9:13 left in the game.  At that point the Bucs were still making less than 25% of their shots.

Then Whitworth finally came alive.  Over the next 2:30 the Bucs outscored Trinity 13-2, including their second three-pointer of the game by Behil, to get within 56-47 with 6:47 to go.  Chesney answered with another three-pointer for Trinity and when Estis drove for a layup it appeared the Tigers might have put the game away at 62-49 with 5:23 left.  The Pirates kept coming.  Parlin scored three baskets and Colton Looney hit his first trey of the game, getting withing 66-60.  After forcing a turnover, Whitworth pulled within three when Behil nailed a long three from the top of the circle.  The Pirates forced another miss and Behil got the rebound.  Parlin had an open look at a three-pointer with 40 seconds left that would have tied the game, but it rimmed off.  Trinity got the rebound and went 5 of 6 at the free throw line in the final seconds to pull away.

Behil led Whitworth with 18 points and five rebounds.  Bateman finished with 13 points and six boards, while Parlin came off the bench for ten points.  Looney and Nyquist each scored eight and added a team-high seven rebounds.  Nyquist also had three assists and three steals.  The Pirates finished the game 23-73 (31.5%) from the floor and 4-24 (17%) from three-point range.  They were 13 of 14 (93%) at the free throw line.  Whitworth committed only four turnovers.

Chesney scored 23 points and added seven rebounds to lead Trinity.  Benjamin Wagner scored 11 off the bench and Estis had 10.  Whitworth held first-team All-Conference post Will Bronson to four points, but he had eight boards to help the Tigers finish with a 43-39 edge on the boards – only the seventh time the Pirates have been outrebounded this season.

Only five players are slated to return for Whitworth in 2026-27.  Head coach Damion Jablonski will have a rebuilding project in front of him to keep the Pirates in the hunt for another Northwest Conference title.