TACOMA, Wash.  Whitman grabbed a slice of title on Friday.

On Saturday, the Blues scarfed down the whole pie.

Whitman's 87-58 romp over host Pacific Lutheran University in a Northwest Conference men's basketball game Saturday gave the program its first outright conference championship since the 1980-81 season. The Blues were co-champions with Pacific and Willamette in 1987.

This year?

Greedy.

"This game, we had the opportunity to show how tough we are on the road," Whitman head coach Eric Bridgeland said. "It was our last road game for a while. We wanted to have our best effort."

After PLU erased Whitman's 43-38 halftime lead with unanswered 3-pointers out of the break, the second-ranked Blues (23-0, 14-0 NWC) took the lead for good on Tim Howell's 3-pointer with 17:11 left in the second half.

Howell's trey snapped a 47-47 tie. The Blues would outscore their hosts 37-11 from that point forward, including a 13-0 run to the 9:46 mark from which the Lutes would never recover.

Whitman allowed just three field goals over the final 17:28 of the game. Bridgeland called that span "the best defensive (17) minutes we've had, maybe of the season."

"PLU is very difficult for us to play," he added. "They cut and they move. They put so much pressure on you to be sound, fundamentally. And we don't sit back; we're in passing lanes, trying to get tips. It's a tough motion offense versus a gambling defense.

"Our guys buckled down and got stops."

The 29-point victory margin represented Whitman's most lopsided in-conference road win of the season, slapping an exclamation point on a four-game road trip. It won the second half 44-20.

The Blues, who played seven of their last eight games on the road, finished with an 8-0 away record in the NWC.

Howell and Joey Hewitt scored 17 points apiece for the winners, and Austin Butler had a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double. Cedric Jacobs-Jones added 13 points and eight rebounds, Jase Harrison scored 10 points and Jack Stewart grabbed six rebounds and three steals.

"Cedric was just a force in the second half," said Bridgeland. "He and Austin had 26 points and 21 rebounds between them. Just dominant. They were instrumental in our run in the second half."

Whitman's largest deficit of the game was four points, with 8:15 left in the first half. The Blues took a five-point lead on Harrison's 3-pointer inside the four-minute mark, but PLU's Brandon Lester hit a 3 to tie it at 38-all with 2:02 'til recess.

Jacobs-Jones cracked a 3-pointer and Howell tallied on the drive to close out the first.

Whitman finishes the regular season with home games against fifth-place Lewis and Clark (on Friday, Feb. 17) and third-place George Fox (Feb. 18), its first appearances at the Sherwood Center since Jan. 22.

The Blues will host the conference's fourth-place finisher in an NWC tournament semifinal on Thursday, Feb. 23 at a time to be determined.