WALLA WALLA – The charity stripe made the difference Saturday night as Whitman made 17 more free throws than Pacific Lutheran en route to a 74-60 Northwest Conference men's basketball win over the Lutes at Sherwood Center.
With the loss, Pacific Lutheran's record falls to 4-9 overall and 1-3 in the NWC. Whitman improves to 8-5 overall and 3-1 in conference play. The Lutes have a quick turnaround before their next game as they head to cross-town rival Puget Sound for a Tuesday night matchup, with tipoff set for 8 p.m.
Daniel Landram led PLU with 18 points, while Arvid Isaksen added 13. The Lutes shot 46.4 percent overall as a team (26-of-56), with identical 13-of-28 marks in the first and second halves. PLU made seven of its 20 three-point attempts (35 percent), and the Lutes attempted only three free throws in the loss, making one.
Matt Mounier's 22 points led all scorers. Dominic Lippi (16 points) and Tochi Oti (12) were also key contributors for Whitman. The Missionaries shot 49 percent (24-of-49) overall, including 8-of-16 from beyond the arc, and made 18 of their 22 free throw attempts (81.8 percent). They also finished the game with a 35-24 rebounding advantage.
Whitman scored 10 of the first 12 points to take a quick eight-point lead less than three minutes into the game. Landram responded almost single-handedly for the Lutes, making the next four baskets to score nine straight points and put PLU on top 11-10.
Over the course of the next 10 minutes, the Lutes pushed their lead to as many as six points when Andrew Alness' three-pointer made it 24-18 with 5:20 to play. Josh Duckworth and Lippi followed with consecutive threes for Whitman to tie it up, and the Missionaries closed out the half with a 17-7 run to claim a 35-31 lead going into the break.
Isaksen opened the second half with a three-pointer to make it a one-point game, but that proved to be the closest PLU would get in the last 20 minutes of play. The Lutes held as close as four points back with 12 minutes to go, but Whitman scored eight of the next 10 points to stretch its lead to double-digits with just over nine minutes remaining. From there the Missionaries pulled away to the 14-point win.
