Pirates to start at home

Whitworth will discover on Thursday just how good it is at this revenge thing.

The Pirates learned they will face a familiar foe in the opening round of the NCAA Division III national men’s basketball tournament when they play host to Claremont College at 7 p.m. at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

Whitworth (22-5) is coming off its biggest victory of the season, a thrilling 90-80 overtime win over a Puget Sound squad that had beaten the Pirates twice before. Now the Pirates must find a way to reverse its first loss of the year, 73-68 to Claremont in December in a tournament in California.

“They play great basketball,” Whitworth coach Jim Hayford said of the Stags, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions. “They beat us earlier on a neutral floor. I didn’t think it was our best performance. The guys are excited they get a chance to right that wrong.”

Claremont (21-6) is led by sophomore forward Chris Blees, who averages a team-high 12.5 points and 7.1 rebounds a game. Junior guard Jason Toney averages 10.8 points for the Stags, who have won seven games in a row.

“They’re more deliberate and slow the game down,” Hayford said. “One of the things we have to have is a lead so they can’t run the clock the way they want to.”

Hayford earned his Master’s degree from Claremont in 1991, and he’s had a long-standing coaching relationship with Claremont’s head coach, Ken Scalminini. Hayford said he met Scalminini as an assistant at Azusa Pacific University, where he coached from 1990-99.

“We’ve known each other since very early in our professions,” he said. “We have great respect for each other.”

Hayford said he was “thrilled” when he learned Monday morning that Whitworth would host a tournament game for the second consecutive year. Even with a home game, the Pirates won’t have an easy route through the 60-team tournament. If they win Thursday, they will have to return to Puget Sound for a second-round game Saturday. The third-ranked team nationally, UPS (24-3) is one of four tournament entrants to receive a first-round bye and second-round home game.

“Having just beaten the third-ranked team in the country,” Hayford said, “that gives us confidence that whoever we play, we can beat anybody. What gives us more confidence is that the last 10 times we’ve put on a uniform, we’ve won nine of them.”