PARKLAND – Pacific Lutheran built an 18-point lead early in the second half and held off a late Willamette run to close out a Northwest Conference men's basketball weekend sweep with a 62-55 win over the Bearcats Saturday night at Names Family Court.
With the win, Pacific Lutheran improves to 5-9 overall and 3-2 in conference play. Willamette falls to 4-11 overall and 2-4 in the NWC. The Lutes head to eastern Washington next weekend to take on Whitman on Friday and Whitworth on Saturday.
Dylan Foreman led PLU with a game-high 18 points, while Brandon Lester tallied 11 points and five assists and Erik Swartout also dished five assists to go with eight rebounds. Austen Trent Wilson grabbed a game-best 13 rebounds. As a team, PLU shot 48.9 percent overall (23-of-47), including 7-of-15 from beyond the three-point line (46.7 percent).
Brandon Luedtke led Willamette with 13 points, while Brendon McCullough scored 11 and Kyle McNally grabbed 11 rebounds. The Bearcats shot 35.3 percent for the night (18-of-51), including 7-of-22 from beyond the arc (31.8 percent). PLU finished the night with a 40-to-24 rebounding advantage.
Pacific Lutheran led for all but three minutes of the game, as the Lutes scored first on a three-pointer by Foreman and jumped to a 10-3 lead. They extended their advantage to 10 points at 17-7 with 12:26 to play in the first period, but Willamette scored seven straight points and rallied to tie it up at 23-23 at the 6:40-mark. The Bearcats took a brief 26-24 lead on a Nathan Sherfey three-pointer before Swartout hit a three of his own to put PLU back on top by one.
The Lutes led 34-30 with one minute to play in the opening period before Kevin McCrossin made a jumper to push the hosts up six and Foreman just barely got a three off before the buzzer to make it 39-30 at the break. Foreman added the first five points of the second half, and a jumper by Wilson capped a 12-point PLU streak that put the Lutes up 16 less than two minutes after halftime.
PLU's lead reached 18 points with 15:26 remaining in the game when Shane Jacob's jumper made it 50-32, but Luedtke made a layup on the other end to spark a nine-point streak for the Bearcats. The Lutes stretched the lead back to 12 with 6:58 to go, but an 8-2 Willamette run made it a four-point game at 55-51 with 2:14 on the clock.
Foreman's final points of the game came on the Lutes' next possession as he made a layup to again make it a six-point contest, and after a McCullough jumper four straight free throws by Zacharias Wallin and Lester made it an eight-point game in the final minute. Following a Luedtke layup, Swartout made the first of two free throws to make it a three-possession game with 16 seconds to play, and a steal by Bryce Miller closed out the win for the Lutes.
