Whitworth can claim another Northwest Conference championship with weekend sweep

The Whitworth men’s basketball team has two things on its mind this weekend – redemption and another regular-season Northwest Conference title to its name.

The Pirates will host Pacific on Friday and George Fox, which handed Whitworth one of its two losses of the season, on Senior Night on Saturday.

Two wins would clinch the NWC title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, with a chance to grab a fourth consecutive Northwest Conference Tournament title.

“We just have to take it one game at a time and hopefully we can clinch the first seed on Senior Night – that’s definitely a big motivation for us as a team,” Pirates senior forward Jake Holtz said. “Hosting for the conference tournament, that would be big time.

“We can’t let our foot off the gas.”

The Pirates hold a fairly secure lead in the NWC, with a 10-2 conference record and a 19-2 overall mark. The next-closest team – Pacific Lutheran – is 2½ games back.

Whitworth entered 2025 NWC play 9-0, but the bid for a perfect season ended after the Pirates fell to Pacific Lutheran 75-73 on Jan. 3 in its conference opener at home.

“We might’ve gotten a little too confident when we were undefeated and that loss to (Pacific Lutheran) really let us know that nothing is going to be easy, that we’ll have to bring our ‘A’ game and we’ll get everyone’s best shot,” Holtz said. “We just have to bring it every night.”

While this weekend’s opponents sit in the middle of the pack in the NWC standings, both programs gave Whitworth everything it could handle earlier this season on the road.

The Pirates erased a 14-point deficit against George Fox on Jan. 17, but could not overcome some sloppy play and lost 87-81. Holtz called it his worst game of the year.

The next day after the loss, the Pirates trailed at halftime to Pacific, but scrambled back with a huge second half to win 82-74.

“No conference game is easy and we haven’t been blowing teams out consistently by any means,” Holtz said. “They’ve been hard-fought games.”

Holtz, the team leader in scoring (16 points per game) and rebounding (6.3 per game), pointed to a resiliency and defensive effort late in games that have allowed the Pirates to win a number of close ones.

“It’s better to learn with a win but sometimes you got to do it with a loss,” Holtz said. “I think those losses – I don’t want to say helped us out – but really kept us motivated to let us know we’re not perfect and we still got work to do.”

Whitworth coach Damion Jablonski has previously pointed to this group’s connectedness as a key that separates itself from title-winning Pirates teams over the past few years. Holtz echoed that sentiment.

“That goes a long way with chemistry on the court,” Holtz said. “Especially with such a deep team, knowing those guys can give us 20 (points) any given night.”

The emergence of point guard Garrett Long and a strong junior class have also been big boosts for a team that lost several high-level starters from last year’s group.

Friday’s game starts at the Whitworth Fieldhouse at 6 p.m. Following Senior Night festivities, Saturday’s game starts at 4 p.m.