WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Those mantras Whitman players have been repeating since Day 1, about playing a one-game schedule and about the playoffs being a new season, are not amplified whispers from the coaching staff.

Eric Bridgeland is not, in other words, a ventriloquist.

"These guys are hungry," the Blues' head coach said. "They're the ones driving the idea of the one-game schedule, about starting a new season. That's them. Sometimes, coaches play the Jedi mind trick. That's not the case here."

No, the case here is, the group with the nation's most impressive body of Division III basketball work has begun its postseason journey as though it has proven nothing yet. It's opening statement -- a 105-75 dismantling of visiting George Fox in a Northwest Conference tournament semifinal at Sherwood Center on Thursday -- was the reflex of a cornered beast, not a gloating one.

"It's a new season," said Blues junior Tim Howell, the NWC Player of the Year. "This is what we do. This is Whitman basketball. We treated this like a championship game."

Expect that approach at 7 p.m. on Saturday night, when rival Whitworth -- a 76-64 winner over Linfield in Thursday's other semifinal -- descends upon Sherwood for Whitman's first home conference championship game in program history.

"We'll come out ready," said Howell, who had 18 points and four steals against the Bruins Thursday. "We'll come out hungry. It's gonna be a crazy night."

Second-ranked Whitman (26-0) has never won a tournament title. In extending the longest single-season winning streak in the 90-plus year history of the Northwest Conference, it swiftly dispatched the ghosts of squandered semifinals past.

A four-game tournament losing streak? Forgotten.

A three-game semifinal losing streak -- all at home? Exorcised.

"We've always lost one or two players to injury or illness this week (in the past)," Bridgeland said. "We've been giving the guys an extra day off here and there, and I think that helped us to be at full-strength, physically and mentally, tonight. Whitman is tough that way."

Joey Hewitt had 26 points and nine rebounds for the winners, who led by as many as 26 points in the first half and 40 in the second. Jase Harrison added 15 points and five steals. Jack Stewart chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds. Against a peaking Bruins squad that was within two points of Whitman with under 10 minutes to play in the regular-season finale here last Saturday, the Blues left no doubt.

"I felt like we got a lot better defensively this week," said Bridgeland. "It obviously showed. They couldn't get free from us on offense."

Whitman looked supremely comfortable from the jump, which meant what it usually does for opponents confronted by that version of the Blues: catastrophe. It was 12-4 Whitman in a flash, Harrison coolly swishing a pair of 3-pointers after Howell got the scoring started with a steal and sprint for a layin.

George Fox's sporadic runs prompted swift and lethal reprisal. When the Bruins cut their deficit to 14-10, Whitman exploded on a 21-6 run. The mic-drop was supplied by Austin Butler, who caught a pass just to the left of the top of the key, glimpsed a seam and tore through it, roaring in to crush a one-handed slam dunk.

The Blues' 52-33 halftime lead was underwritten by both effort and execution. Whitman ripped down 12 offensive rebounds and grabbed eight steals -- 20 extra possessions for a team with no shortage of creative takes on the art of the score. Nor were the hosts wasteful in said abundance, making 21 of 41 shots (51.2 percent) and 7 of 15 3-pointers in the first half.

Hewitt had 14 points, six rebounds and two assists by halftime. Harrison made 3 of 4 3-pointers, scored 13 points and swiped three steals. Howell had 11 points and three steals.

George Fox (10-16) made 15 shots against 14 turnovers. It finished the game with 30 makes against 25 giveaways.

Whitman had 27 offensive rebounds (to the Bruins' 30 total) and swiped 16 steals.

Notes: Whitman picked up its first conference tournament win since a 2013 semifinal victory over George Fox … The Blues were making their seventh consecutive tournament appearance and eighth overall … Whitworth has won 10 consecutive tournament championships from 2007-2016 and 12 overall … Whitman is 0-2 all-time in conference championship games. It lost 93-72 at Whitworth in 2013 and 75-50 at Whitworth in 2011 … The NWC began playing conference tournaments in 1994. This is the 21st tournament.