TACOMA, Wash. - Jacob Bingham canned five three-pointers and finished with 19 points but it wasn't enough as the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team was edged 67-64 by Benedictine University on Friday night inside Olson Gymnasium in a wild non-conference affair featuring 18 lead changes and 15 ties. 

The nip and tuck affair saw neither team pull away with the largest lead of the night only six points. Fittingly the game came down to the wire. The Lutes (3-4) enjoyed a 64-61 lead with 45 seconds left off a big Bingham three but a layup by Benedictine's Michael Johnson followed by a turnover a made free throws by the Eagles' Kyle Graebner tilted the scales in favor of the visitors by one point. PLU had the ball with a chance to take the lead with 19 seconds left but a Michael Johnson steal and subsequent made free throws put BenU up three with 10 ticks to go. The Lutes had one final chance with a three at the buzzer but it banked off the backboard to give BenU the victory. 

"That game was ours for the taking. It's something that I know really hurts inside and it should," said Head Coach Chad Murray. "We had a lot of opportunities to seize control and just couldn't get it done. Credit to (BenU Coach Keith Bunkenburg) and his team for their resilience and toughness in their third game in four nights. We did our share of answering some challenges when we could've folded up shop when things got tough."

The visiting Eagles (6-5) built an early 11-5 lead just four minutes into the game in what proved to be the largest lead of the night. PLU scored the next 11, including a pair of free throws from Zac Webb and enjoyed a slim 30-29 advantage at the halftime intermission.

Bingham hit five of his 10 attempts from three-point range to net 19 points in 29 minutes of work. Kelton Williams added 11 points while Leighton Kingma added 10 points and seven rebounds. Jordan Thomas dropped nine along with three steals while Conor Geiger had eight points, six assists, and six rebounds. 

"It was nice to see Jacob knock down some tough shots, none bigger than the one at the end to put us up three. We just didn't execute on either end in the last minute and it cost us dearly. We'll respond well to this and get back after Christmas looking to improve each day."

PLU shot 48.1 percent from the field (25-for-52) while BenU shot just a hair better at 49.0 percent (25-for-51). Both squads shot exactly 13-for-22 (59.1 percent) over the final 20 minutes. The Eagles gained their biggest advantage on the bench with the BenU reserves outscoring the Lute bench by a 21-7 margin.

The Lutes take the rest of the week off before traveling to California, facing Chapman University on Friday, dec. 28 at 7 p.m.