WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Montana Tech and Corban College provide the opposition in this weekend as the Whitman College men's basketball team hosts the 13th annual Wildhorse Resort Classic in Sherwood Center.
The three-team, three-day tournament kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday when Whitman faces Corban, an NAIA Div. II member of the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Montana Tech, which plays in NAIA Div. I Frontier Conference, jumps into the fray at 6 p.m. Saturday against Corban. The tourney concludes at 6 p.m. Sunday with Whitman squaring off with Montana Tech.
Whitman has played both of its tournament foes in recent years. Last November in Salem, Ore., the Missionaries dropped their season opener to Corban, falling 85-71 as the hot-shooting Warriors drilled 13 3-pointers to rally from an 11-point first-half deficit.
In December 2003, when Corban was still known at Western Baptist, the Warriors made their first appearance in the Wildhorse tournament, downing Whitman 98-86 in overtime after having scored the final four points in regulation.
This week marks Montana Tech's first appearance in the Wildhorse tourney, although the Orediggers visited Sherwood Center in November 2005 for an early season encounter. Whitman won that game 70-67.
A Most Valuable Player Award, as well as an all-tournament team, will be announced following this weekend's final game.
Admission for the first two nights of the tournament is $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and $1 for students. Admission is free for Sunday's tournament finale between Whitman and Montana Tech. Whitman students, staff and faculty are admitted free of charge throughout the tournament.
Here's a brief look at the teams in this week's Wildhorse Classic:
Whitman is off to a 2-3 start this winter, having notched decisive victories over UC-Santa Cruz and the University of Great Falls while dropping close decisions at both Evergreen State and Cal Lutheran. The Missionaries stumbled just a bit last Saturday at home, losing to Evergreen State for a second time but by a wider margin.
Chris Faidley, Whitman's 6-foot-2 junior guard, has been scoring points by the bushel this season and has already bagged two Northwest Conference Player of the Week awards. Faidley, who blitzed Great Falls for a career-high 42 points, is averaging 30.4 points, which is tops in the Northwest Conference, along with 6.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists.
Faidley, who made a school-record 91 3-pointers last season, is 22 of 46 from long range over his first five games. He is shooting just a shade under 50 percent from the floor overall.
Sophomores Graham Brewer and Jordan Wheeler, in their first seasons as starters, are also off to solid starts. Brewer, a 6-foot-9 post, is averaging 13.4 points and 7.8 boards per game. He ranks second in the NWC in rebounding and free throw shooting (13-14, 92.9 percent). Wheeler, a 6-foot-2 guard, is averaging 11.4 points. 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
Jordan Brandon, a 6-foot-4 sophomore wing who is averaging 5.2 points and 3.4 rebounds, had his best game of the season last Saturday against Evergreen State, scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds. Max Adcox, a 6-foot-5 freshman, has held his own in a starting role, scoring 5.4 points per game while shooting 61.1 percent from the floor (11 of 18). He's also pulling down 3.8 rebounds a game.
Keefe Piper, a 6-foot-6 junior, has been Whitman's third-leading rebounder at 4.0 rebounds an outing. Garth Brandal, the only senior on the Missionary roster this season, suffered a broken cheekbone in early workouts and returned to line-up for limited minutes in Whitman's last two games.
Whitman coach Skip Molitor, now in his 14th season, is working with his youngest team in years. The Missionaries graduated three senior starters in each of the past two years.
Montana Tech, which competes against the likes of Lewis-Clark State, Westminster and Carroll in the rugged Frontier Conference, is 4-6 on the season. The Orediggers last played on Nov. 30, when they squeaked past Minot State 79-76 behind the 26 points of Dusan Veselinovic, a 6-foot-9 junior forward from Belgrade, Serbia. Veselinovic, who is averaging 18.5 points and 4.8 rebounds, hit five of his eight 3-point attempts in the Minot State victory.
Tony Trudnowski is averaging 14.5 points for the Orediggers, although the 6-foot-4 junior has played in just four games thus far. Trudnowski, who is hitting 50 percent of his 3-point attempts (12 of 24), led the Frontier Conference in 3-point shooting last season at 46.2 percent. Also scoring in double figures for Montana Tech are Jeramie Hopson (12.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg), a 6-foot-3 sophomore who spent the last four years in the U.S. Air Force, and 6-foot-6 senior Casey Briggs (10.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg), who is in his second season as a starter.
Jake Williams, a 6-foot-6 senior forward who has blocked 15 shots in his first 10 games, averages 6.7 points and 6.1 rebounds. He led the Frontier Conference in blocks last season and earned second-team all-league honors.
Montana Tech has a handful of players standing 6-foot-6 or taller. One of those is Ivan Sljivar, a freshman forward from Serbia. Nate Larson, a native of Browning, Mont., is in his second year as the Oredigger coach. Montana Tech was 10-18 last season, which included a 5-9 conference mark.
The offensive-minded Warriors, 3-7 to start the season, are scoring 85.5 points per game but giving up an average of 91.5 points to their opponents. Three of Corban's losses thus far have come at the hands of Whitman rivals in the Northwest Conference -- Puget Sound, Lewis & Clark and George Fox.
|
|
|
|
Corban's top gun is 6-foot-5 junior Wade Douglas, who averages 20.4 points while shooting 61.5 percent from the floor. He also leads the Warriors in rebounding at 6.9 boards per game.
Others scoring in double digits for the Warriors are 6-foot-8 freshman Ian Logan (12.7 ppg, 4.5 rpg), 6-foot-3 senior Ben Sisler (10.4 ppg), and 6-foot-3 senior Hannes Gehring (10.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg). Adding to Corban's firepower are 6-foot-1 freshman Clay Martin (9.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and 6-foot-4 sophomore Jason Braun (9.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg). All 13 players on the Warriors roster are from the state of Oregon.
Douglas scored 16 points to lead the Warriors past Whitman last November in Salem. Gehring and Brauan added 10 points apiece in that victory.
Now in his sixth season as Corban’s coach, Justin Sherwood enjoyed a superlative season in 2004-05, when the Warriors won their first 18 games and rose to No. 1 in the NAIA Div. II national ranks. Corban finished that season with a 28-7 record, which included a 13-1 record in the Cascade Conference.
Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
(509) 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu