FOREST GROVE - Pacific Lutheran garnered their first Northwest Conference men's basketball victory of the season from the free throw line Sunday night, making the most of their opportunities in a 67-64 win over Pacific at the Pacific Athletic Center.

The Lutes (3-6, 1-1 NWC) connected on 21-of-27 from the charity stripe, including 20-of-24 in a second half.  Fourteen of those came in the final nine minutes, allowing the Lutes to erase a seven-point Pacific lead and take the win. Conversely, the Boxers (4-6, 0-1 NWC) hit a respectable 6-of-9 from the stripe.

James Conti led three PLU players in double figures with 16 points.  Kyle MacTaggart added 15 points and eight rebounds while Zachary Klein came off the bench for a career-high 15 points.  The Lutes shot 44.7 percent from the field (21-of-47) and 4-of-9 from the three-point arc, including a perfect 3-of-3 by Klein.

Ross Bartlett led Pacific with game highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds while LeMar Anglin added 10 points.  The Boxers shot 43.3 percent from the field (29-of-67) and out-rebounded the Lutes, 40-30, but went 0-of-7 from three-point range.

After a back-and-forth battle over the first eight minutes of the contest, Pacific established some sense of control thanks to an 8-0 run, capped by a Carson Bartlett lay-in that gave the Boxers a 17-9 lead with 8:21 to go.  Colin Wester extended the lead to 11 points on his jumper at the 5:58 mark and Adam McElwee connected with 3:07 left for the Boxers' biggest lead of the night at 29-16.

In what would be a sign of things to come, the Lutes used a lay-in from Klein to ignite an 11-2 run to end the stanza. Conti capped the period with his jumper with 11 seconds left that cut the Pacific lead to 31-27 at half.

The Lutes opened the second half by taking a 36-35 lead on a three-pointer by Klein, but Pacific built a 50-43 lead with 9:16 to go.

Pacific hit just two more field goals over the next six minutes, allowing the Lutes to take the a 55-54 lead on Marcus Reaves' lay-in with 5:21 left.  PLU sealed the game when MacTaggart was fouled on a three-point shot and proceeded to make all three free throws to give the Lutes a 63-58 lead with 2:47 left.  The Boxers managed to come within one on a Wester jumper with eight seconds left, but again free throws made the difference as two Gabe Smith charity shots accounted for the last scoring in the game.

PLU returns to Northwest Conference action at 8 p.m. Wednesday when it plays at Puget Sound.

(Courtesy of Pacific Sports Information Office.)