by Whitworth Athletics
SPOKANE, Wash. – Another Northwest Conference championship has turned into another big haul for the Whitworth men's basketball team on the 2012 All-NWC team, which was released today by the conference office.
Matt Logie is the 2012 Northwest Conference Coach of the Year in his first season leading the Pirates. Felix Friedt and Idris Lasisi have been named to the All-NWC First Team, based on voting by the league's coaches. Wade Gebbers has been selected to the Second Team and Jack Loofburrow received honorable mention consideration.
Logie directed this year's team to an overall regular season record of 22-3. The Pirates won the NWC title with a record of 15-1, four games ahead of the field. Whitworth went 8-0 on the road in conference contests this season. Logie is originally from Mercer Island, Washington and came to Whitworth from Lehigh University, where he was the associate head coach the previous two seasons.
Friedt, who was just named a First Team Academic All-American, is on the All-NWC First Team in 2012 after earning Second Team honors in 2011. He is second on the team in scoring average (16.4 ppg – 5th in the NWC), while making 59.5% of his shots from the field (3rd in the NWC). He currently is first in the Northwest Conference in rebounding average (8.8). Friedt devastates opponents by drawing fouls and making free throws. Not only is he second in the NWC in free throw percentage (81.4%), he has made more free throws (149) than all but two other players in the league have even attempted. He been named NWC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week twice – first on December 6th and then on January 10th. Friedt leads the conference with 12 double-doubles this season. He has 1,031 career points and became the 22nd player in Whitworth history to surpass the 1,000 career point total during the game at Whitman on February 14th.
Lasisi earned First Team All-NWC honors in his first, and only, season at Whitworth. A fourth-year transfer from North Idaho College, Lasisi is averaging a team-high 16.4 points and adding 4.6 rebounds per game. His scoring average is fourth in the NWC. He also leads the team in steals (31). Lasisi scored a season-high 27 points in Whitworth's win at Whitman on Feb. 14 and finished with 25 points in the Bucs' game against nationally-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater on December 21st.
Point guard Wade Gebbers is averaging 13.6 points per game (11th in the NWC). He leads the team in assists per game (3.4), which ranks third in the NWC, and he also has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.8-1. Gebbers leads the league in three-pointers made per game (3.0) and ranks third in the league in three-point percentage (43.5). He scored a career-high 26 points on January 17th against Whitman.
Loofburrow, who had been sidelined for eight weeks with an ankle injury beginning in early December, is an honorable mention selection for the second straight season. In 17 games this season he has averaged 9.3 points, but has averaged 14.5 points and made 58% of his three pointers over the last six contests.
Whitworth, the top seed in the 2012 NWC tournament, will host Lewis & Clark on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in the Fieldhouse. If the Pirates win that game, Whitworth will host the NWC tournament final on Saturday, also at 7:00 p.m.
© Matt Logie, in his first year as coach at Whitworth, led the Pirates to a 22-3 regular season record (Photo: SWX)
© Felix Friedt (pictured) and Idris Lasisi have been named to the All-NWC First Team (Photo: SWX)
