PARKLAND – Pacific Lutheran pulled within five points midway through the second period but Evergreen used a 17-7 run to put the game away as the Geoducks defeated the Lutes 75-65 in nonconference men's basketball action Wednesday night at Names Family Court.

Pacific Lutheran falls to 2-5 this season with the loss, while Evergreen improves to 3-5. The Lutes head to San Antonio, Texas, for their next contests as they will face Schreiner and Southwestern on Dec. 19-20 at the Trinity Tournament.

Brandon Lester scored a game-high 18 points to lead the Lutes, while Seth Anderson scored 15 points and grabbed a team-best six rebounds. Terrell Williams tallied nine points. Five Geoducks reached double-figures in the scoring column, led by Jordan Dam's 16 points and Landon Rushton's 15 points.

PLU led for most of the first eight minutes as Evergreen missed eight straight shots. A layup by Alix Hernandez ended the drought and sparked a seven-point Evergreen run to give the Geoducks the lead. Another seven-point run a few minutes later made it a nine-point game, and after consecutive PLU shots the Geoducks used an eight-point run to take their first double-digit lead of the night.

Evergreen led 39-26 at halftime and stretched the advantage to 16 points a few minutes into the second period. Anderson made a three-pointer for the Lutes' first points of the second half to spark a 15-4 PLU run to pull the Lutes within five at 46-41 with 13:37 to play. Frankie Johnson ended the run with a three-pointer for Evergreen and the Geoducks made four more threes the rest of the way to hold off a Lute offense that hit five shots from long-range in the final nine minutes.

For the night Evergreen finished with a 42.4 overall shooting mark (25-of-59), slightly better than PLU's 41.8 percent (23-of-55). The Geoducks made two more three-pointers (9-of-27) than the Lutes (7-of-19) and four more free throws (16-to-12), while out-rebounding PLU 41-to-33.