‘We can be a great team’: Coming off big win, Whitworth hosts Whitman to open conference play

Coming off its biggest win of the season, the Whitworth men’s basketball team will look to ride the momentum into Northwest Conference play this week.

On Saturday, Whitworth (6-5) took down an unbeaten, fifteenth-ranked Elmhurst (11-1), the national runner-up in Division III last year, in a thrilling last-minute comeback victory in the final game of a challenging non-conference schedule.

With victories over Pacific and Willamette under their belt earlier this season, the Pirates will jump back into conference play on Tuesday against Whitman (7-4) at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

“We know we can be a great team,” said Jake Holtz, a senior forward for the Pirates. “We got a lot of talent on our roster, we just got to put the pieces together. We saw it briefly in spurts throughout the season. … But if we put those pieces together, we can be a really good team and make a deep run this year.”

Holtz, who leads the team in scoring, put up a season-high 30 points on 17 shots in Saturday’s win. Junior guard Jojo Anderson added 20 points. The two have been critical pieces offensively for a team that graduated several key seniors from last year’s group.

After a 5-1 start to the year, the Pirates dropped four straight, including two losses at the Hoops in Hawaii Classic in Honolulu last month.

“Playing these tougher teams, I feel like we’re learning from our mistakes,” Holtz said. “And we’re going to see those teams if we make the national tournament, so it’s good for us to get exposed to those East Coast teams and stuff like that. It’s been beneficial for us, especially to get ready for conference (play).”

Prior to Saturday’s win, Whitworth coach Damion Jablonski and some players spoke about the team still searching for its identity after a few tough losses.

“Certainly, there have been some blows toward our ego, so you hope that the guys recognize their growth through the challenges and still hold a high level of confidence going into the conference,” Jablonski said.

While the Pirates’ offense was sharp to start the season, the defense remained a weakness for a fairly undersized group. During the four-game skid, Jablonski noted that the team was making strides defensively, but said the offense needed to find a second wind.

“Once they both balance out, I’m really confident about what this group can do,” Jablonski added.

Several teams in the Northwest Conference hold winning records alongside Whitworth, including Whitman, George Fox, Pacific Lutheran and Willamette.

Whitman sports a high-powered offense, scoring over 80 points per game and led by senior guard Jai Deshpande and senior forward Jander Cline. The Blues lost to Elmhurst in Walla Walla on Thursday after nearly erasing a 32-point second-half deficit.

The Pirates and Blues have traded blows over the past few seasons; Whitworth defeated Whitman in the conference championship last year.

Jablonski pointed to the team’s connectedness as a key to securing the third conference title in four years.

“These guys love each other and they work hard for each other and I just think in the end, once we find a rhythm, they’re really going to thrive because they really care about one another and they’re in it for the right reasons,” he said.