Whitworth’s Kenny Love player of year in NWC

Despite not starting all of its games, Whitworth guard Kenny Love has been named the Northwest Conference men’s basketball player of the year.

Love, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Santa Rosa, California, was named the top player and coach Matt Logie was named the NWC coach of the year for the third time in his four years at Whitworth, where he has a 97-17 record.

“I haven’t really been thinking about it,” Love said of conference honors. “But I was happy when I heard.”

Love joins fellow sophomore wing Christian Jurlina, who was named to the All-NWC first team from No. 16 Whitworth. Senior center Taylor Farnsworth and junior forward George Valle both received honorable mention for the Pirates, who finished 22-3 and play Thursday against Willamette in the semifinals of the conference tournament.

Jurlina, of Sydney, Australia, leads the conference-champion Pirates with 14.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for the season. His 46 steals is also tops.

Love came off the bench the first seven games, but came on strong later in the season. He led the team in scoring during the 16 conference games (14.7 points) and he hit 45 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. He follows ex-Pirates guard Dustin McConnell, who was named the player of the year last season.

“I really looked up to (McConnell),” Love said. “I really tried to follow his example.”