Jared Christy and his Whitworth teammates ready for Pacific Lutheran

The Whitworth men’s basketball team is halfway home.

At the midpoint of the Northwest Conference season, the Pirates are ranked fourth in the nation and are a safe bet to host a first-round game in the conference postseason tournament on Feb. 22.

Whitworth (15-2 overall, 7-1 NWC) also can take another step toward a possible NCAA Tournament berth this weekend with home wins against Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound.

Friday’s game will be special for senior forward Jared Christy, a star at Ferris High School who played for three years at PLU before transferring to Whitworth this season.

The adjustment has been smooth. An all-NWC second-team pick last year for the Lutes, Christy leads the conference with 9.7 rebounds and double-doubles with eight.

Two weeks ago in a win over George Fox, Christy had 17 rebounds, the most by a Whitworth player since Nate Montgomery had 18 in 2009.

This will be Christy’s last encounter with his former teammates. The Pirates took the first meeting 88-70 in Tacoma on Dec. 2.

The Lutes (4-12, 1-7) lead the NWC in fewest fouls committed per game (16.8). Sophomore forward Leighton Kingma averages 11.8 points while making 42 percent of his 3-point shots.

On Saturday, the Pirates have a chance to put some distance between themselves and one of their closest pursuers. UPS is 12-4 overall and tied for third with Linfield at 5-3 in league play.

The Loggers average 98.7 points per game and lead the NWC in 3-pointers made at 13.1. Junior guard Jimmy Wohrer leads the league with a 21.8 scoring average.

Kyle Roach, the only returnee from Whitworth’s starting lineup last year, is averaging 17.9 points.