TACOMA, Wash. – The Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team turned an eight-point halftime deficit into a 10-point victory over the University of Puget Sound on Tuesday night for its second straight Northwest Conference victory.
PLU (6-8, 2-3 NWC) came charging out of the second half locker room, scoring 15 of the first 21 points to take a 42-41 lead after a pair of free throws by
Jordan Thomas with 12:17 left in the game.
The Lutes took the lead for good when
Leighton Kingma drilled his first three-pointer of the contest with 9:17 left to give the visitors a 47-46 edge. PLU slowly built their advantage all the way to 11 points when
Kelton Williams scored a transition layup with 4:32 remaining. The lead never got below six the rest of the way as Williams hit all four of his free throws to ice the game.
The Loggers (7-6, 1-3 NWC) led throughout most of the first half. PLU held marginal leads of 9-6 and 11-8 in the early going, but UPS led the rest of the way after it took a 12-11 advantage with 13:50 remaining in the first twenty minutes. The hosts led by as many as 11 with 1:54 remaining, but the Lutes went on a quick 6-0 to cut the lead to five. Griffin Webb drilled a three-pointer for the Loggers in their final possession to bump their lead back to eight, 35-27, at the break.
Kingma took care of business on the glass for the second straight game. After pulling down 15 rebounds in the win over George Fox University on Saturday night, the senior grabbed 13 more on Tuesday to go with a game-high 20 points. Williams chipped in 14, while
Seth Hall and
Jordan Thomas both hit double figures with 11 and 10, respectively.
PLU shot a blistering 51.7 percent from the field in the second half and put the clamps on the Loggers defensively, holding them to just 9-for-28 shooting and 3-for-12 from beyond the three-point arc.
PLU looks to make it three straight Northwest Conference victories and even its league record on Friday night when they travel to Salem, Ore. to take on Willamette University.
