SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – The Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team left no doubt on Friday night at Kaiser Permanente Arena, blowing past Johnson & Wales University (Colo.) 72-42 in the team's season-opener.
The Wildcats (0-1) made the first basket of the contest, but it was all Lutes from there. A suffocating PLU defense held Johnson & Wales to just 25.9 percent shooting from the field and forced the Wildcats into 13 turnovers. PLU also dominated the glass, owning a 54-35 edge on the backboards. All 17 Lutes that suited up got some game action and 11 players scored.
The Lutes (1-0) built an early 12-6 advantage and after a timeout by PLU eight minutes into the game, the victors closed the first 20 minutes on a 21-11 run.
Seth Hall scored all seven of his points in the first half and
Dylan McConnell grabbed six of his seven rebounds as both players sparked PLU off the bench.
Johnson & Wales came out of the locker room hot to start the second half, cutting into the PLU lead with a 10-5 run, but the Lutes regrouped and regained control of the game with a 20-2 run to end all doubt. Senior
Leighton Kingma provided the exclamation point with a steal and a breakaway dunk with 4:35 left to give PLU a 31-point advantage, its largest of the game.
Kingma led all scorers with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and hitting all six of his two-point tries. Junior
Luke Worley added 10 and was the only other Lute to hit double figures. Point guard
Kelton Williams had nine points, four assists and just one turnover.
PLU will close a busy first weekend when they take on the Banana Slugs of the University of California Santa Cruz tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.
