Yup.

http://loggerathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/boxscores/20111126_xlw9.xml

I wish WW well.  Great team, the Belgian guy is tremendous (and what is he doing playing in D3?), and I readily acknowledge WW's superiority in the NWC.  On the other hand, Puget Sound played River Falls on a neutral floor (empty gym at PLU over the holidays) and beat them, score much closer than the game.  The Loggers finished second in a tough conference, and even beat the guys with "March" printed on their warmup jerseys three times.  .  I could almost understand if WW had the home court that it made no sense to have them beat UPS again, but given the way things played out I think UPS and NWC got jobbed. 

It was a messy game in Tacoma, lots of fouls and a long second half.  Both the Logger big guys were in foul trouble early and were gone early in the second half, but UPS controlled Whitman (but not Michaels, who was great) from start to finish.  Whitman played aggressively, as Bridgeland's teams always do, but Puget Sound was equally hard-nosed, and, man for man, just better.  I've been watching Puget Sound basketball for a long time, and while this isn't the best UPS team by a long shot, it's a tough group and I think Coach Lunt deserves some props for that.  Taking nothing away from Coach Bridgeland, who I have great respect for and who brought exciting basketball to Tacoma after some dismal years, I don't worry going into a game against Whitman that Puget Sound is going to be outcoached.  This season, when talent-wise you could argue for a close match between the teams, Lunt was 3 and 0.  I'm not optimistic about the trip to Spokane, but I did see UPS play about 28 good minutes against WW early in the season and I think the team is significantly better now than it was back then.  I think they have a puncher's chance of making it a game.   

In support of Keandre's points re: Puget Sound's strengths....this year the Loggers beat UW River Falls, which if I'm not mistaken is now the #1 ranked team in the west.  UWRF made a late run in that game, but Puget Sound controlled the game and was the better team.  (This suggests that maybe the NWC is better overall than you might think this year.)  UPS had four poor halves in a row--losing a lead to WW in the second half in Tacoma after leading at halftime and expanding that lead to 7 or 8 early in the second half, playing a terrible game at PLU and then an awful half at GF, followed by good play in the second half and then a string of wins.  I didn't follow the recent game in Spokane, and it looks like WW dominated.  But I saw Puget Sound play WW very tough for most of the game in Tacoma and I think that in the recent PLU game at UPS the Loggers showed they can be a very tough and very physical team, presenting a different profile than past good UPS squads.  Puget Sound is quite good this year, maybe not the best team in the NWC but if they beat GF tomorrow it'd be hard to argue the Loggers are not the second best team in the conference.  Then they can hope for another shot at WW in Spokane.