Men’s Basketball: Whitworth stays undefeated with win over Hamline in Rocky Mountain Thanksgiving Classic

George Valle scored 19 points and Whitworth stayed undefeated, beating Hamline 69-56 in the Rocky Mountain Thanksgiving Classic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Valle was 5 of 10 from the floor and 8 of 11 from the line with eight rebounds. Christian Jurlina had 18 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while Matt Staudacher added 11.

Whitworth, ranked third in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, was without last season’s NWAC Player of the Year Kenny Love for undisclosed reasons.

Travis Van Elsberg paced Hamline (1-2) with 11 points off the bench.

Whitworth trailed only once in the game – after Quinton Garvis’ 3-pointer gave Hamline a 3-0 lead – and led 35-31 at intermission, but the Pirates were up by just two with 6:31 to go.

An 18-2 run over from that point on – including a 3-pointer from Jurlina – allowed the Pirates to pull away.

Whitworth shot 42 percent from the floor and went just 4 of 17 from beyond the arc.

CCS 96, Olympic 77

Race Martin scored 21 points, Jake Love added 20, and Community Colleges of Spokane topped Olympic College at the Red Devil Classic in Longview, Washington.

Spokane will face SW Oregon on Saturday at 8 p.m..

The Sasquatch shot 56 percent from the floor overall and made 11 of 26 from beyond the arc. Jacob DeVries had 19 points and Levi Taylor contributed 11 points.

Olympic led 45-35 at intermission, but Spokane shot 79 percent (22 of 28) after the break – hitting 7 of 9 on 3-point attempts – en route to 61 second half points.