The Whitman College basketball team’s outstanding achievements on Senior Night were great highlights in each of their respective campaigns. The men’s team recovered from a difficult 78-99 defeat against George Fox to beat Pacific University 76-67, going on an 11-3 run in the last three minutes to secure the win. The women’s team continued their massive win streak by beating George Fox 68-65 in a tight game that went down to the final second, followed by a dominant 80-56 victory over Pacific University.
On Tuesday night, the Whitman Blues hosted the Whitworth Pirates in the Battle of the Whits. Both teams took home victories, with the No. 5 women dominating 77-51, only allowing four points in the fourth quarter, while the men took down No. 15 Whitworth (21-3) in an emphatic 79-63 victory.
Senior Night was particularly significant for the women’s team, as all five starters are seniors. Two-time NWC Player of the Year and All-Amercan senior forward Korin Baker and NWC 2023-34 Coach of the Year Michelle Ferenz talked to us after the game to reflect on the occasion.
“It’s pretty special, especially with this group that we have. We’ve been together for the whole time. The starting lineup is all seniors, one other super senior—we’ve been together since day one. So it’s pretty special for us to win on senior night,” said Baker.
“Senior night is always a little bit hard because there’s a lot of emotion. I think that was part of it in the first half—everyone was pretty hyped up, so we were a little rough. I’m thankful Korin was playing so well because she kind of carried us,” said Coach Ferenz.
Korin Baker had an incredible three-game stretch this week. She first broke the team’s career rebounding record against George Fox, overtaking Jennifer McClure’s tally of 902 set in 1994. She followed that by scoring 32 points and grabbing 12 rebounds against Pacific University, breaking their career high for points in a single game while only missing two shots. Then, against Whitworth, Baker broke the record for career points by a Whitman player, beating Katie Rubenser’s record set in 1994.
No. 5 Whitman’s women’s basketball secured the regular-season Northwestern Conference title with its victory against George Fox. With both wins this weekend and their victory against Whitworth, Whitman improved its record to 23-1 and 15-0 in conference play.
“For D3, the West Coast doesn’t get a lot of attention nationally, so it’s really cool to be ranked this year. I feel like we’ve really earned it,” Baker said. “This group comes in every day and works really hard both during the season and in the off-season, so it’s pretty cool. It’s a little number [five] on a piece of paper, but it represents a lot of work that we put in every day.”
However, the team remains determined to treat every game the same.
“Some people might think that there’s a little pressure being undefeated in conference play so far, but this team is really good about just looking forward,” Baker explained. “Taking it one game at a time, one moment at a time, and knowing that if we bring the energy, we will click and be able to win the game.”
Meanwhile, the men’s team showed resilience after a tough loss to George Fox on Friday night. Reigning NWC Defensive Player of the Year, senior guard Grant Hunt, highlighted some of the keys to their turnaround on Saturday.
“Last night wasn’t really fun. So today we went into the game with a point of emphasis—having fun with everything and not putting too much pressure on each other,” Hunt said. “We also knew they were very similar to the team we played last night, so we just had to lock in on guarding the ball better. We didn’t really stay in front of the ball yesterday, so today we made an emphasis on staying in front of the ball and playing defense.”
Men’s head coach John Lamanna, 2-time NWC Coach of the Year, similarly marked out how their defeat led to their victory the following night.
“Our poor play last night kind of ignited a better play tonight. But it was just different matchups,” Coach Lamanna said. “In the game of basketball, matchups in terms of who you’re guarding and where their strengths are compared to your weaknesses play a huge role.”
Following the weekend, Whitman men’s basketball has an 11-13 record, with a 9-6 record in the Northwest Conference. The immediate goal from here is securing a spot in the conference tournament.
“The goal is to win the conference tournament and go on to the NCAA tournament. In order to do that, you’ve got to win two games in the conference tournament,” Coach Lamanna said.
The men’s team now takes their fight for championship qualification to Linfield (4-10) for the last game of the season. They can guarantee a spot in the conference tournament if they win their game on Friday.
While the season draws to a close, there is still so much left to play for. Both teams are poised and look to make a big impact on the postseason, specifically honing in on the championship game on March 1st. The women’s conference championship will be hosted here at No. 5 Whitman, while the men’s will be hosted by No. 15 Whitworth. While teams are unaware of who they will be facing, one thing is certain – nobody is counting Whitman Basketball out.
