‘I feel really confident’: Whitworth opens NWC Tournament in search of fourth consecutive championship
After an up-and-down end to the regular season, the Whitworth men’s basketball team enters the Northwest Conference tournament optimistic in its chances to secure a fourth consecutive tourney title.
The top-seeded Pirates (22-3) will host Lewis & Clark (13-12) on Friday in the Whitworth Fieldhouse. Whichever team moves on will face the winner of Whitman (12-13) and Pacific Lutheran (14-11) on Saturday.
“I feel great. I feel really confident,” Whitworth senior guard Garrett Long said about the team going into the tournament. “We had a really good week of practice. Everyone was very locked in – a lot of good energy.
“… As long as we do what we need to do, bring the energy and execute our game plan, we’ll be more than fine.”
Whitworth, after a perfect nonconference record, only stumbled a few times through conference play, losing once at home and twice on the road. But the final two games of the regular season offered tough challenges.
The Pirates fell 79-63 on the road to Whitman on Feb. 18, but followed it up with a 72-71 victory at Linfield on Saturday – thanks to a winning floater from Long – to close the regular season.
Whitworth coach Damion Jablonski said the Pirates have nine wins decided by five points or less.
“Every conference game is going to be a battle,” Jablonski said. “The one thing I really love about my team is we’ve really learned how to win close games.
“… I just think that’s really valuable experience that we have. The kind of thing that’s going to help us if we’re going to win a conference championship.”
Whitworth’s two games against Lewis & Clark this season came down to the wire. On Jan. 11, the Pirates defeated the Pioneers 76-75 in the Whitworth Fieldhouse in overtime. On Feb. 7, the Pirates escaped with a 74-71 victory.
“It’s going to be a very physical game,” Long said of Friday’s matchup. “It’s going to be highly competitive, a lot of energy and back and forth. We have been scouting them. This is our third time playing them, so we know them pretty well and they know us pretty well.
“The biggest thing is staying together when they go on their runs and executing our game plan and playing extremely hard and we’ll come out with a ‘W.’ ”
Similarly to Whitworth, Lewis & Clark brings a deep and balanced scoring attack to go with a strong defense.
If the Pirates advance from Friday, both potential championship matchups – Pacific Lutheran and Whitman – have wins over Whitworth this season.
After getting bumped down six spots to 21st in d3hoops.com’s most recent Top 25 poll after the loss to Whitman, the Pirates face an uphill battle getting into the NCAA Division III Tournament without winning the conference tourney and obtaining an automatic bid.
“We’re glad we’re hosting it; that’s a big advantage, for sure,” graduate forward Jake Holtz said. “We just have to keep the ball rolling and do what we’ve been doing throughout the course of the season.”