PARKLAND – Pacific Lutheran rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to pull within two points, but Saint Martin's held off the Lutes 74-64 Saturday night in nonconference men's basketball action at Names Family Court.
Pacific Lutheran falls to 3-3 overall, while NCAA Div. II Saint Martin's improves to 2-6 with the win. The Lutes have a quick turnaround, as they head to Seattle's Key Arena Sunday for a 2 p.m. matchup with NCAA Div. I Seattle University.
"Tonight we played a very good Saint Martin's team," PLU head coach Steve Dickerson said. "We got in a hole in the second half and dug our way out and made it a very good game, but again, at the very end we just kind of ran out of gas and didn't execute some things we should have executed."
Arvid Isaksen led the Lutes with 18 points and 10 rebounds in 37 minutes of court time. Brandon Lester added 17 points to give PLU a pair of double-digit scorers. Ryan Rogers tallied a game-high 22 points and added nine rebounds for Saint Martin's, while Evan Coulter scored 19 and Isaac Bianchini finished with 10.
Saint Martin's shot an even 50 percent for the game (27-of-54), while PLU shot 38.7 percent (24-of-62). The Saints finished the game with a 40-33 rebound advantage.
The Saints scored the first nine points of the game before Isaksen's jumper four minutes in got the Lutes on the board. Saint Martin's followed with another bucket, but Daniel Landram hit a layup to spark a 15-point PLU run to give the Lutes a 17-11 lead. Saint Martin's went almost eight full minutes without scoring before Tyler Copp's three-pointer ended the drought and halved the PLU advantage.
Kevin McCrossin responded with a trey of his own to put the Lutes back up by six, but then it was the Saints' turn to go on a run. Copp made a layup to spark a 10-point SMU run as the Lutes didn't score for another four minutes. The Saints' lead reached as many as seven points with 1:28 to play in the first half, but Erik Swartout hit a three-pointer, and layups by Terrell Williams and McCrossin tied it up at 29-29 with nine seconds to play. Unfortunately for the Lutes, that left enough time on the clock for Coulter to drop a three and give SMU a 32-29 lead at halftime.
Pacific Lutheran scored the first point of the second period on a Bryce Miller free throw before SMU scored the next eight to take its first double-digit lead at 40-30 with 15-41 remaining. A Kai Hoyt jumper broke the streak, but the Saints tallied the next five to take their largest lead of the game at 45-32.
A pair of Lester free throws made it an 11-point defict for the Lutes, and Landram followed with a layup before Lester hit a three-pointer to pull PLU within six. Shannon Lucas made a layup for SMU, but Andrew Alness followed with a three, and a few minutes later Lester completed a three-point play with a layup and a free throw to make it 51-49 with 9:13 to go.
The Lutes had a chance to take the lead on their next possession, but Lester missed a three-pointer and SMU scored the next three points. An Isaksen layup again made it a one-possession game, but SMU tallied six straight to go back up by nine.
Buckets by Lester and Hoyt made it 60-57 with 4:00 remaining as the Lutes made one final push, but Saint Martin's scored the next eight points and made six of eight free throw attempts in the final 73 seconds to ruin any comeback hopes for the Lutes.
"The effort was there and we're getting better," Dickerson said. "We didn't play that badly for having not played in two weeks, so we have some things to work on but we also are excited about the upcoming games."
