WALLA WALLA, Wash.  December might be premature, its spotlight too narrowly regional, to take true measure of Whitman or Whitworth, whose men's basketball rivalry seems to grow more dramatic and diabolical with each chapter. They entered Tuesday night's Northwest Conference contest at Sherwood Center having played identical opponents, all the while climbing the same national poll into rarefied, single-digit air, climbing the same standings, their trajectories skyward but ever bent toward one another.

They'll meet again in January in Spokane, probably in February, and – at their current respective quality – could make reaquaintance deep in March.

For now, Whitman has a leg up.

The fourth-ranked Blues opened the game on a brilliant burst, absorbed No. 7 Whitworth's inexorable climb back into striking distance and then pulled away for a 79-65 victory that begged for sequels. Blues center JoJo Wiggins, who had his most aggressive offensive performance in a Whitman jersey, called it a "game of runs." For Whitman, bookending a taut, back-and-forth middle of the game, there were two: a 29-12 eruption out of the gate, and a Tim Howell-led final sprint.

"We talk about it all season: basketball is a game of runs. It's important to keep an even keel," said Wiggins, who had 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting despite foul trouble. "You have to understand that there will be a run by the other team."

Over the first eight or nine minutes, there was only one team running. Before most fans could take their seats – or pry their eyes from the court to find a piece of open bleacher -- Whitman (5-0, 2-0 in NWC) had a 20-6 lead. Wiggins, Howell, Joey Hewett, Cedric Jacobs-Jones and Jack Stewart had baskets in a 10-0 Blues run that shook the building. When Wiggins sandwiched post buckets around a Howell 3, it was 29-12 Whitman with 11:11 left in the half.

The Blues could not sustain what was a 128-point pace, but did take a 44-29 lead into the break, thanks in part to a persistent defensive effort that never wavered. In contextualizing a contest between teams that "may both be a little ahead of December," Whitman head coach Eric Bridgeland was especially pleased that his squad held the conference's top shooting team -- a decade-plus trend -- to 37.9 percent from the floor.

"We've been working hard on defense," he said.

Led by senior Christian Jurlina, who played his final regular-season game at Sherwood, Whitworth grinded back into reach. He had eight points during an 11-0 Pirates run that made it 59-52, Whitman, with 9:07 to play.

"We knew that if not in the first half, in the second half they'd make a run," said Whitman sophomore guard Jack Stewart, who hit three 3-pointers and had 11 points. "We just stayed focused on makings stops. One stop at a time."

When the stops started coming, Howell backed them up with a series of dribble-drive assaults on the hoop at the other end. He had consecutive left-handed layins sandwiched around his own steal to push Whitman's lead into double digits with 6:17 to play. A put-back by Butler answered a Jurlina jumper to push the lead back to 11.

After two Wiggins free throws, Butler and Howell collaborated on the dagger: Butler ripping a rebound away from a pack of taller players, blazing the length of the court like a shiver down a spine and dropping a perfect dime to Howell, who scored while getting hacked.

His free throw made it 74-58, Blues.

"I always tell him that there isn't a player in the country that can guard him," Stewart said of Howell, who had 27 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. "He gets to the paint at will."

"Appearance-wise, he's not the biggest. But he plays with fire. He doesn't back down from anyone," Wiggins added. "He's got heart. He's got a killer instinct."

Austin Butler had six rebounds and a steal, Jacobs-Jones a team-high seven rebounds and Andrew Harvey spelled Wiggins for a four-minute first-half stretch and grabbed four rebounds for the winners.

"JoJo gave us a huge lift in the first half, and that was a great spurt by Tim in the second half," Bridgeland said. "We couldn't stop (Whitworth) for a while.

"This is a rivalry," he added. "(Whitworth) is really, really good. It's early in the year, but a great test, a great measuring stick."