TACOMA, Wash. – For the second straight night, senior
Conor Geiger came through when it mattered most. Geiger scored the team's final five points and had a critical blocked shot with 19 seconds left to help the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team knock off Pacific University for its fifth consecutive Northwest Conference victory.
With the game tied at 92 and 1:43 left in the contest, Geiger calmly sank two free throws to put the Lutes up by a pair, but the Boxers knotted the score on the ensuing possession for the seventh time of the game. On PLU's next opportunity Geiger grabbed an offensive board, was fouled and split a pair of freebies with 1:06 remaining to give the Lutes a 95-94 edge.
Davis Holly put the Boxers ahead by one with 55 seconds left when he made a layup for two of his game-high 43. After the Lutes came up empty offensively, the senior forward swatted a layup by Devin Fortune and it was picked up by
Jordan Thomas with 19 seconds remaining. The Lutes took advantage of the transition as Kingma found Geiger cutting to the hoop for the game-winning layup with 11 seconds showing on the scoreboard.
PLU needed one more defensive stop to earn the victory and got it when
Seth Hall played excellent defense on Holly, who left his three-pointer short as time expired.
The win was the Lutes' fifth in a row and pushed them to 5-3 in NWC action and 9-8 overall. The five-game league streak is the Lutes' longest since they won five in a row in the 2015-16 season. PLU has already surpassed last season's win total and equaled its conference victories.
Kingma capped a terrific weekend with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field. The reigning NWC Player of the Week scored 25 in last night's win over Lewis and Clark College and has registered at least 20 points in the last five games.
Thomas added a season-high 25 points, while Hall scored 19 and Geiger notched 16. As a team, the Lutes shot 58.9 percent from the field including 62.5 percent in the second half. Geiger also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the double-double.
PLU looks to extend its winning streak next weekend when they host conference-leader Whitman College at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night in Olson Gymnasium.
