‘We got something to prove’: Whitworth determined to advance past Cal Lutheran at DIII NCAA Tournament

The Whitworth men’s basketball team, looking for its first postseason tournament win since 2020, may have to tip off Friday night against Cal Lutheran without the Northwest Conference Player of the Year.

Junior point guard Jojo Anderson, the team’s leader in points and assists per game, is dealing with a shoulder injury that put him out of the Pirates’ past three games.

Whitworth coach Damion Jablonski said Thursday night that Anderson’s status is still unknown.

But the Pirates have shown that they are more than capable of competing without Anderson on the floor, including the win over Whitman on Saturday to win the Northwest Conference Tournament title and secure an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament.

“At the end of the day, it’s next man up,” Whitworth senior forward Jake Holtz said. “Our roster is filled with talent, and we know those guys can come out and give us buckets any given day.”

Holtz, an important two-way player for the Pirates all season long, racked up 32 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in the victory over the conference rival Blues.

The Pirates (19-8) have recorded two wins over the Kingsmen (23-4) since 2019, but Cal Lutheran has made big strides as a program and became a powerhouse in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this season.

Cal Lutheran head coach Russell White has led a five-year turnaround, going from a four-win season in 2020 to eclipsing 20 wins and taking the regular-season conference title this year.

After tearing through conference play, the Kingsmen fell to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the conference championship game.

Despite a middle-of-the-pack offense in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Kingsmen boasted strong defensive numbers, including conference bests in points per game allowed and opponent 3-point percentage.

The Kingsmen defense is anchored by junior guard Desi Burrage, who won defensive player of the year and was named to the first team in the conference.

Senior guard Devon Lewis leads the Kingsmen in scoring at 13.8 points per game. All-conference selections Tommy Griffiths, a senior forward, and Brock Susko, a junior forward, both scored 11 points per contest.

The Kingsmen are an intriguing matchup for Whitworth’s talented offense. The Pirates led the Northwest Conference in 3-point field-goal percentage at nearly 38%, led by senior guard Sullivan Menard, knocking down 2.7 3-pointers per game at a clip over 39%.

In 2020, the Pirates won first- and second-round tournament games, but the playoffs were subsequently canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. After securing automatic bids the past two years, Whitworth fell in the first round of both tournaments.

Jablonski said the Pirates have more of a drive to make a postseason run compared to recent Whitworth teams.

“I think our guys are still really hungry, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “… My sense from this year’s team is that there is a lot left on the table that we’d like to accomplish.”

Whitworth and California will tip off at 6:05 p.m.

Whichever team advances will face the winner of St. Thomas (Texas) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

“I think we’re going to go out there and play with confidence – no fear,” Holtz said. “The past couple years we had some first-round exits.

“We didn’t forget that and should be playing with a chip on our shoulder like we got something to prove.”