SPOKANE – Pacific Lutheran missed a potential game-tying layup with five seconds to play and Whitworth came away with the game-clinching rebound following a free-throw to clinch a 76-73 Northwest Conference men's basketball victory Friday evening at Whitworth Fieldhouse.
The loss drops Pacific Lutheran's record to 4-8 overall and 1-2 in conference play, while the defending conference champion Pirates improve to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in the NWC. PLU returns to action Saturday, taking on Whitman in Walla Walla at 6 p.m.
Bryce Miller scored a game-high 22 points, but with the Lutes down two and five seconds remaining his layup was no good and Whitworth's Jurlina Christian picked up the rebound. Christian made his first free throw attempt following a PLU foul, and Seth Anderson rebounded his miss on the second attempt to close out the comeback win.
Miller's 22 points were a career-high total for the sophomore post, and with 10 rebounds he posted his first double-double of the season while also serving four assists. Daniel Landram also reached a career-high in the scoring column, reaching 20 points for the first time as a Lute. Arvid Isaksen scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds.
The narrow loss was just the latest in a string of heartbreakers for PLU against three-time defending conference champion Whitworth. While Whitworth has now won 17 straight in the series, each of the past six games has come down to single-digits. A back-and-forth contest featured 16 tie scores and 15 lead changes, balanced evenly between the two halves. Whitworth's largest lead in the contest came at the 12:40-mark in the first half when a pair of Austin Wood free throws put the Pirates up by four at 16-12.
The Lutes responded with a 7-2 run to reclaim the lead at 19-18, and a 15-4 PLU run a few minutes later made it 36-28 with just under three minutes to go in the opening period. Consecutive buckets by Kenny Love made it a four-point game at halftime, with PLU leading 36-32.
Miller hit a layup to open the second half, and Isaksen dropped a three on the Lutes' next possession to give the Lutes their largest lead of the game at 41-32. Colton McCargar made two free throws for Whitworth to spark the Pirates' biggest run of the game, as a 13-2 stretch turned the nine-point deficit into a two-point advantage.
Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way, with the Lutes' final advantage coming before a pair of Dustin McConnell free throws tied it up at 72-72 with 1:28 to play. George Valle made a layup with just under a minute to go to put Whitworth up for good. Kai Hoyt had a chance to tie it at the charity stripe with 27 seconds on the clock, but the second attempt missed and the Pirates picked up the rebound. A moment later Christian Jurlina made one of two free throw attempts to set up Miller's game-tying attempt.
McCargar finished with 21 points for Whitworth. Valle totaled 14 points, while Jurlina tallied 13 and Love added 10. PLU finished with a 53.3 shooting percentage (32-of-60), while Whitworth shot an even 50 percent in the game (25-of-50). Both teams made four three-pointers, while Whitworth went 22-of-28 from the free throw line (78.6 percent) and PLU finished with only five free throw makes in nine attempts (55.6 percent).
