Salem, Ore.. – The Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team was unable to keep pace with host Willamette, stumbling 85-77 in a contents featuring eleven ties and 17 lead changes.
 
"We had a really interesting experience tonight," said head coach Chad Murray. "One that was familiar in a lot of ways both positive and negative. I thought out guys showed tremendous fight, but also fell into some situations that we didn't handle well in the second half that hve plagued us throughout the season."
 
The Lutes (6-12, 3-7 NWC) forced 16 turnovers and grabbing eight steals, but the difference came from the bench with the Bearcats owning a 22-5 edge.
 
The starting five combined for all but five of the Lutes points, with Conor Geiger leading the way with 23 knocking down a trio of three-point shots in the first half. Leighton Kingma and Kelton Williams each added 19, with Jordan Thomas contributing nine with six rebounds.
 
"Individually, Jordan was tremendous on both ends of the floor. He had a tough task guarding Jenkins, but then also rebounded well and scored when he had the chance. Kelton showed incredible grit all game and Leighton was able to get going a bit from three. We just let a quick 8-2 run turn into a 16-2 run which proved t be too much for us to overcome."
 
The Lutes return to action tomorrow night, heading to Newberg to take on George Fox at 6 p.m.