SPOKANE, Wash.  Ice.

There has to be ice running through the veins of Whitman's top-ranked men's basketball team.

Tim Howell sank a pair of free throws with 0.9 seconds remaining to cap off a game-of-the-year candidate Northwest Conference contest, lifting Whitman to a 100-99 victory over the Pirates.

Host and third-ranked Whitworth University threw the kitchen sink at the men in Blue Tuesday night in a standing room only Whitworth Fieldhouse.

Trailing Whitman 7-5 in the early minutes of the national, top-five showdown, the Pirates starting dropping in 3-pointers, came up with steals that turned into layups, and built a 12-point cushion, 28-16, at the 11:27 mark.

The Blues chipped away at the deficit, but when Ben College rolled in a layup to push the Pirates to a 37-26 edge, he and his Pirate teammates were making buckets at a 70 percent clip.

Then Jack Stewart happened.

Darné Duckett scored on a fastbreak, then committed theft which turned into a Ben Beatie layin to chop into the deficit. Another turnover followed, this time a steal by Howell, and Stewart's work began.

His first trey was from the mid-court line. Not really, but whoa, it was out there.

Sure, Whitworth answered, but now he was hot. Stewart drilled a 3 from the top, left of the arc and just like that the Blues were only trailing by three.

Three minutes later it was Austin Butler's turn to contribute. He registered a defensive rebound at one end, and ended up the possession at the other end with a driving layup to pull his team to within a point, at 46-45.

When the score was tied at 51-51 a few moments later, it made all of Whitworth's front-court prowess beforehand a moot point.

Game on.

The Pirates, courtesy of a late 3-pointer to end the first half, began the second with a 57-54 lead, but Joey Hewitt's layin to start the half prevented a quick start by the Pirates.

For the next 10 minutes neither team led by more than four points, until Whitworth stretched an 81-79 lead into an 85-79 advantage with nine minutes to play.

Free throws from Hewitt halted the spurt, and a steal and layup from Butler on Whitworth's subsequent inbounds play massaged the larger deficit away.

Still, though, Whitman was having trouble getting over the hump.

A few missed shots, a couple of turnovers, and it was still a one-point deficit, 90-89, approaching the five-minute mark.

Finally -- inevitably? -- the Blues made their earmark run, going up 93-90 on a Cedric Jacobs-Jones put-back of a Howell miss.

As the minutes slid off the clock the tension grew in the Fieldhouse.

After Hewitt's pair of free throws had given Whitman the lead at 91-90, the raucous home crowd was palpably sapped of its energy.

It was the home team's Kyle Roach who re-energized the throng. A steal and layup by Roach pulled Whitworth back to even, 96-96, with 2:54 to play.

What had been a breakneck pace since the opening tip, slowed down into stops and starts with errant shots, turnovers, and whistles.

Not until the 54-second mark -- a Howell layup to make it 98-96 -- were the scoreboard lights asked to rejoin the action.

A pair of turnovers, one by Roach then one by Howell, provided the Pirates with a chance to wrest the lead away. With 10.1 seconds remaining College found the bottom of the net for a trey from the right wing to send the Fieldhouse -- also re-invigorated to join the action -- into bedlam.

Surely this was the dagger.

Surely Howell couldn't bide his time just inside the half-court line with the clock ticking away its final seconds.

And surely Howell couldn't drove the right side of the lane, and with his quickness force a foul -- with the Blues in the bonus -- with less than a second on the clock.

The din was breathtaking as the senior All-American and reigning conference player of the year toed the line.

Pow. Not even really a swish. Howell's release just bangs the netting as the ball powers its way through.

Tie score, 99-99.

Louder. The Fieldhouse again, louder.

Howell, perhaps feeding off the pro-Whitworth crowd?

Bang.

Ice. Not just Howell, but in Butler with steals and blocks and driving layups. And in Stewart dropping in his timely 3's. and in Hewitt with his 8-for-8 night from the free-throw line. And in Jacobs-Jones with the timeliest of an offensive rebound and put-back. And in…the Blues.

Howell finished with a team-high 27, including 7-of 8 from the line, while Hewitt added 16 and a perfect night from the line. Both Butler (14 pts.) and Stewart (12) also cracked double digits in scoring. As well, Trevor Osborne, Duckett and Beatie added nine apiece. The latter three combined with others off the bench to score 22 points, while Whitworth's non-starters contributed a total of five points.

Roach, with 45 points -- a career high -- led four Whitworth starters into double figures. 

The victory keeps Whitman (22-0, 13-0 NWC) unbeaten and extends its regular season NWC win streak to 37 games. It also gives the Blues a season sweep of the Pirates (19-3, 11-2) and a two-game lead in the league standings.

Whitman puts it streaks and ranking on the line Saturday in Newberg, Oregon, where it will face off against host George Fox University, the team the Blues defeated in the semifinal round of the 2017 NWC tournament.