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Whitworth Pirates more than ready to resume NWC play

Whitworth guard Kyle Roach (1) drives the lane with the basketball against UW-Stout guard Zach Dahl (12) during a college basketball game, Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, at Whitworth Fieldhouse. (James Snook / For The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Allen jima@spokesman.com

In addition to a pair of wins, Whitworth picked up some valuable momentum by winning last weekend’s Whitworth Basketball Classic.

“It felt good to build some rhythm back this week,” coach Matt Logie said Wednesday as the eighth-ranked Pirates return to Northwest Conference play this week with home games against Lewis & Clark and Pacific.

“With Christmas and exams, it was a herky-jerky month of December,” added Logie, who’s club is 10-1 overall and 2-0 in the WCC heading into Friday’s game against L&C.

December also saw Whitworth take its only loss of the season, a 92-84 defeat against Wheaton that also sidelined guard Jordan Lester.

With Lester out last week, Logie got strong production from a trio of backups in wins over Wisconsin-Stout (79-71) and Calvin College (88-58).

Garrett Hull scored 10 points in the win over Stout, Sam Lees had a career-high 22 points against Calvin, and Isaiah Hernandez played 20-plus minutes in both games.

“We have great depth this year and we were able to see that on Saturday,” said Logie, who added that Lester is questionable for this week.

Guard Ben College leads the Pirates with 17.8 points and game and is shooting 46 percent from 3-point range; and guard Kyle Roach averages 14.2 points and 5.3 boards while playing a team-high 33 minutes a game.

Forward Jared Christy is averaging 11.5 points and a team-high 8.6 rebounds.

Lewis & Clark (4-7 overall, 0-2 in the NWC) is averaging a league-low 10.9 turnovers and has four players averaging double-figure scoring.

Whitworth has won eight straight against LC.

Saturday’s opponent, Pacific (8-3 and 2-0), has dropped three straight games but is shooting a league-best 47.8 percent from the field.

Four Pacific players average double figures in scoring, led by junior guard Brevin Brown who has posted 16.6 points per game despite the fact that he does not start.

The Pirates are at top-ranked Whitman on Tuesday, but Logie dismissed any notion that his players might be looking past L&C and Pacific.

“We haven’t looked that far ahead,” Logie said.