Written by Student Assistant Christian Bond
TACOMA, Wash. – With winter break approaching, the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team has its sights set on the Santa Cruz Tournament after picking up a 73-70 win over Portland Bible College last Friday.
Zac Webb made his first career start for the Lutes against Portland Bible. The 6'5" sophomore hasn't played many minutes in a Lute uniform but that hasn't stopped him from getting better and improving every day.
"My first start felt exciting and exhilarating but definitely had some butterflies before the game too," Webb said. "Coach Dickerson has made a huge difference in my development because he always communicates with me with what he wants me to focus on and improve on."
Basketball has been a major part of Webb's life, attending the Plateau Pro Camp as a youth in his hometown of Enumclaw, Washington. At those camps, he was noticed by camp director Tony Benitti, who was an All-American in 2006 at Seattle Pacific University and played overseas.
Benitti attended games at Enumclaw High School, where he recognized Webb from his days as a camper. Benitti reached out to train Webb and he jumped on the opportunity, working together through his senior year before parting ways.
"He was really tough on me as a trainer," Webb said. "Frequently making me run if I did not reach my goal during a shooting drill. But also had very positive feedback with my improvement and shooting during a drill."
Webb appeared in just four games for the Lutes last season as a first year. When the season was over, he reached out to Benitti one more time, asking for more training over the offseason. Benitti, whose uncle Marc Calero was an assistant under Steve Dickerson, was enthusiastic to work with Webb once again."
"We work on a variety of things," Webb said. "His main focus for me is my shooting game while improving my mid-post game, outside shooting, and attacking in transition. He also has me do a lot of ball handling drills to get me more comfortable handling the ball with pressure and at the college level."
Webb has appeared in three games for the Lutes this season and looks to continue to contribute for PLU as the travel to California for their final non-conference games of the year.
Dec. 18: PLU vs Illinois Institute of Technology at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, Calif. (3 p.m.)
Series History: The Lutes and Scarlet Hawks have never met on the hardwood.
About the Scarlet Hawks: Illinois Tech (4-3) heads to California having won two straight and four of its last five games. The Hawks opened December with a 57-54 win over Milwaukee School of Engineering before blowing away Fontbonne University 90-75 on Monday.
Anthony Mosley Jr. leads the offense for the Hawks, averaging 17.7 points per game. He is one of four IIT players who average in double figures along with Malik Howze (15.1 ppg), Jake Digiorgio (14.9 ppg), and Samuel Rarick (10.9 ppg).
Dec. 19: PLU vs. University of California Santa Cruz at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, Calif. (3 p.m.)
Series History: PLU and UC Santa Cruz have met six times on the hardwood with the Lutes winning all six encounters. Four of those victories have come under the direction of Steve Dickerson including a 67-46 victory over the Banana Slugs during the 2014-2015 season.
About the Banana Slugs: UC Santa Cruz (4-6) split a pair of games at the Lopata Classic in Saint Louis to open the month of December before earning a weekend split against a pair of in-state foes. The Slugs fell 84-69 to Washington University in Saint Louis on Dec. 2 before outlasting Rhodes College 111-109 in an overtime epic the following day. Last weekend UCSC blew out California Institute of Technology 83-59 before being victimized 74-61 by California Lutheran University.
Three players average double figure scoring with Corey Cilia leading the way with a 13.2 points per game average. Kyle Creighton adds 11.6 ppg and Will Crain contributes 10.4 ppg.
