WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Whitman College basketball returns home this week for games Tuesday and Friday night. In what has become widely known as the Battle of the Whits, Whitman will play host to Whitworth University tomorrow night at the Sherwood Center. The 21st-ranked Whitman women's team will tip against the Pirates at 6 p.m., while the No. 20 Whitman men will square off against the nation's top-ranked men's team.
 
January 5 the teams took the court against each other in Spokane, Wash. on a night that wins were split between the two schools. The Whitman women used a dominant fourth quarter in a comeback win over Whitworth, 55-52. Alysse Ketner scored a team high 13 points in the contest, while Emily Rommel (12) and senior, Hailey Ann Maeda (10) joined her with double-digits. The Whitman guard play was phenomenal, holding Whitworth star KC McConnell to just 3-12 shooting from the field.
 
The first meeting between the men's teams featured No. 25 Whitman versus No. 2 Whitworth in a game that, like the women's game, did not disappoint. While the Missionaries dropped the game 95-89, early foul trouble limited the Northwest Conference's leading scorer, Tim Howell to just 11 first half minutes. Howell still finished with 20 points in 28 minutes, while Evan Martin and Christian McDonald combined to score 30 on 9-of-12 shooting.
 
Since the last meeting in early January, the Whitman women and men are a combined 12-2 (each team 6-1). Both teams rank second in the NWC, with the men trailing Whitworth by two games.
 
NOTE: Tuesday night's game will be a whiteout at Sherwood. Feel free to come out, support the Missionaries and wear white! The first 100 fans in attendance to each game will receive a free Whitman College drawstring bag.