TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team opens up the second half of NWC play this weekend by hosting the Whits inside Olson Gymnasium. The red-hot Lutes welcome NWC leader Whitman College on Friday night before clashing with second place Whitworth University on Saturday. 

The Lutes finished the first half of conference play strong, winning their last five games after dropping the first three to start conference play. The Lutes are now 9-8 overall and 5-3 in Northwest Conference play. The Lutes currently sit in fourth in the NWC standings and have a two-game lead over fifth place University of Puget Sound. Senior Leighton Kingma has led the Lutes in scoring the last six games and had 26 last weekend against Pacific University and 25 against Lewis & Clark College, earning NWC Player of the Week honors for the second consecutive week. Heading into the weekend, Kingma sits just eight points shy of hitting 1,000 points as a Lute. Sophomore Jordan Thomas also contributed 25 points on Saturday to give the Lutes a thrilling one-point victory over Pacific 97-96.

Luke Worley, a junior from Wenatchee, Washington has brought energy on the defensive end in the recent winning streak. Against Pacific he scored six points, but more importantly brought energy to the team by drawing four charges. 

"They (the Whits) are both very talented teams and we have to continue to bring it on the defensive end, the two close games last weekend will help us this weekend and the rest of the season stay calm when we are in high stress situations," said Worley. 

After graduating next spring, Worley who is majoring in business with a communications minor hopes to work as a supply logistics manager for Nike. Worley and the rest of the Lutes will look to continue to bring the energy and build on their 5-game winning streak this weekend.

Action this weekend will start at 8 p.m. on Friday night against Whitman and continue at 6 p.m. on Saturday against Whitworth. 

Jan. 31: PLU vs Whitman inside Olson Gymnasium (8 p.m.)

Series History: The Lutes and Blues rivalry goes back to the 1953-1954 season with PLU owning a 73-46 overall record against Whitman. The Lutes have lost the last six meetings against the Blues and in the first conference game of the year, Whitman came away with an 84-66 victory.

About the Blues: Whitman (13-4, 8-0 NWC) are riding an eight-game winning streak and last weekend secured 19- and 17-point victories over Whitworth and Linfield College.

Andrew Vickers is the leading scorer for the Blues averaging 18.8 points per game. There are also five other members of the Blues who are averaging more than 10 points per game. The Blues are the highest scoring team in the NWC scoring an average of 101 points per game.

Feb. 1: PLU vs Whitworth inside Olson Gymnasium (6 p.m.)

Series History: The Lutes and Pirates rivalry goes back to the 1946-1947 season with the Pirates leading the series 86-64. The Pirates have won the last 29 meetings against the Lutes. The Lutes last win against Whitworth came back in January 2005 where the Lutes won 67-64. In the first meeting this year, Whitworth came away with a 75-59 victory.

About the Pirates: Whitworth (13-4, 7-1 NWC) are coming off a split weekend where they lost their first conference game to Whitman before bouncing back with a three-point win over Linfield. 

Ben College is the leading scorer for the Pirates averaging 22.3 points per game. He had 21 the last time the two teams matched up. The Pirates also get a large chunk of their scoring from Isaiah Hernandez and Jordan Lester. The Pirates average over 10 offensive rebounds per game on the season as well.