TACOMA, Wash. - Featuring a balanced scoring attack, the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team proved it can hang with the nation's best on Friday night, trading blows with 12th-ranked Whitworth University before running out of steam in a 76-65 setback inside Olson Gymnasium. Four Lutes ended the night in double figures in the Northwest Conference slugfest that saw 10 lead changes and four ties.

The visiting Pirates (20-4, 12-3 NWC) collected seven of the game's first nine points but the homestanding Lutes (8-15, 5-10 NWC) wouldn't back down, scoring the next seven points and taking a 9-7 lead with 12:10 left in the first half on a Leighton Kingma three. The next nine minutes was a back and forth affair. A Carlton Brown trey put PLU up 24-22 with 3:02 left in the opening half but the Pirates closed the period on a 11-0 run, enjoying a 33-24 lead at the halftime intermission.

That lead touched double digits early in the second and swelled to 16 with 13:18 remaining in the game before Pacific Lutheran battled back. The Lutes methodically reduced the deficit, pulling within single digits for the first time with 6:14 left on a Nasseen Gutierrez-Orozco three before whittling it to seven with 2:27 remaining. Whitworth responded with six of the final eight points of the game, hitting all four of its free throws to hold on for the win.

Gutierrez-Orozco came off the bench and led the Lutes with 13 points, draining three of his five shots from beyond the arc while Kingma, Kelton Williams, and Jordan Thomas all added 10. Thomas hauled in a team-high eight rebounds while Williams finished with six assists and three steals. 

"We really lacked energy in the first five minutes of the first half but climbed out and did a really nice job defensively again until around two minutes left and then lost some focus heading into halftime," said Head Coach Chad Murray. "Unfortunate, because that really took the wind out of our sails going into halftime. Again after a slower start to the half we were able to stabilize and really compete. We will win these game eventually but only when we're ready and we aren't ready just yet. Stick with us and we will be soon."

PLU shot 40-percent (eight-for-20) from beyond the arc but was outmuscled in the interior with Whitworth enjoying a 37-28 rebounding edge and a 46-22 advantage in points in the paint.

The Lutes are back on the court tomorrow evening, closing out the regular season against second-ranked Whitman College at 6 p.m.