SPOKANE, Wash. – Ross Nakamura and David Riley have been named to the 2009 All-Northwest Conference First Team in men's basketball, while Calvin Jurich has been selected to the Second Team. The conference released the full team today.

Click here for the entire All-NWC team. The team is selected by a vote of conference coaches.

Ross Nakamura	David Riley	Calvin Jurich

Nakamura (Sr., Moraga, Calif.) has led the NWC in assist-to-turnover ratio each of his two seasons at Whitworth after transferring from Diablo Valley College in Concord, Calif. He led NCAA DIII in the category last year and is third in the nation this year with 3.05 assists for every turnover. What makes those numbers even more remarkable is the fact that he has led the conference in minutes played each of the last two seasons as well, this year averaging almost 37 minutes per game. Nakamura has averaged 11.8 points and 5.1 assists per game this season, while making over 41% of his three-point attempts. He scored a game-high 24 points in the Pirates' win at Puget Sound in last Saturday's NWC Tournament final. Nakamura was an honorable mention All-NWC choice last season.

Riley (So., Palo Alto, Calif.) led the Pirates in scoring average this season at 16.2 points per game. He has developed into the most dangerous three-point shooter in the NWC, making 46.8% of his attempts from beyond the arc and 2.96 threes per game. Both of those numbers rank second in the NWC this season. He was named MVP of the Johns Hopkins Blue Jay Invitational after scoring a tournament-record 34 points in the opening win over Brockport State and leading the tournament in scoring. In this season's win over Pacific Lutheran, Riley topped his career high with 37 points, 34 in the first half when he tied his own school record for three-pointers made (8) and led the Bucs to a 57-14 halftime lead. He was selected NWC Student-Athlete of the Week after each of those performances.

Jurich (Sr., Spokane, Wash.) posted his best-ever season as a Pirate after earning GSL Player of the Year honors as a senior at University High School. He ranks second in the NWC this season with seven double-doubles, one of which is the first triple-double at Whitworth in at least 20 years after he scored 16 points and added 14 rebounds and 10 assists in a 94-60 win over George Fox on January 2nd. He scored a career-high 22 points twice this year, including a win at Whitman on Feb. 17. His 15 rebounds at Lewis & Clark was also a career high. Jurich averaged 13.2 points per game and 8.0 rebounds, which tied for second in the NWC this season. In addition, he showed great versatility for a post player by averaging 3.2 assists (second on the team behind Nakamura) and 1.2 steals (tied for team lead) this season.

The trio have led the Pirates to a 22-5 record and a spot in the 2009 NCAA Division III tournament, the team's third straight national tournament appearance and fourth all-time. Whitworth will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the NCAA First Round on Thursday.