PARKLAND – A quartet of Pacific Lutheran players reached double-figures in the scoring column as the PLU men's basketball team knocked off Linfield 62-53 Saturday night in Northwest Conference action at Names Family Court.
Pacific Lutheran ended a five-game losing streak with the win to improve to 5-11 overall and 2-5 in conference play. Linfield fell to 2-14 overall and 0-7 in the NWC. The Lutes will look to make it a weekend sweep Saturday, when they host Willamette in an 8 p.m. matchup.
Brandon Lester made five three-pointers to tally 16 points for the Lutes, hitting five of his nine attempts from long range. Arvid Isaksen finished with 12 points, while Terrell Williams and Daniel Landram each added 10. Williams flirted with a double-double, grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.
Ryan Cali made seven of his nine shots to lead Linfield with 16 points, and Tanner Brill finished with 14. Both teams made 20 shots in the game, with the Lutes doing so on 45 attempts (44.4 percent) and the Wildcats taking 50 attempts (40.0 percent). PLU out-rebounded the Wildcats 33-to-26 and finished with eight more free throw makes on 15 more attempts.
A back-and-forth first half featured five tie scores and three lead changes, as the PLU offense struggled to find its shooting touch in the opening minutes. Cali got the scoring underway with a three-pointer, and a few minutes later a trey by Nick Cantonwine gave Linfield a 10-3 advantage.
That proved to be the Wildcats' largest lead of the night, as Lester hit a three a moment later to cut the deficit to four and the Lutes scored seven straight points to tie it up at 10-10. Neither team led by more than three points for the rest of the period, as PLU took a 26-25 lead into halftime.
Linfield reclaimed the lead briefly early in the second half, as a layup by Cali made it 30-28 in favor of the visitors. Isaksen turned the deficit into a lead with a three-pointer on PLU's next possession, as the Lutes used a 13-2 run to stretch their lead to nine points at 41-32 following another Lester trey.
The Wildcats slowly chipped away at the PLU lead, working their way back to two points down with 7:19 to play. A pair of Chris Dirks free throws made it 48-46, but Landram made a jumper for PLU on its next possession and Isaksen followed a Linfield miss with a three-pointer to make it a seven-point advantage.
Brill responded with a three-pointer for Linfield, but Lester's final trey of the night came a few minutes later, and the Lutes made six of eight free throws down the stretch to close out the nine-point win.
