TACOMA, Wash. – Trailing for most of the first 26 minutes of Saturday night's game against Willamette University, the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team caught fire down the stretch, hitting nine three-pointers in the final 13 minutes to score 59 second half points and earn a 90-75 victory over the visiting Bearcats.
Junior
Seth Hall led the rally, accounting for 19 of his 26 points in the second stanza. Hall gave the Lutes their first lead of the second half after sinking 1-of-2 free throws for a 50-49 lead with 14:04 remaining and tied the game for the sixth time at 12:38 on a three-pointer that knotted the score at 55.
Seniors
Jacob Bingham,
Conor Geiger Leighton Kingma and
Kyle James took over from there, as the quartet accounted for 24 of the Lutes' 35 points down the stretch. Bingham, Geiger and junior
Blake Uyehara combined for a barrage of seven three-pointers in a six-minute span as the Lutes turned a two-point lead into an 18-point runaway. James closed the scoring for PLU on a pass from
Grayson Peet.
PLU shot 55.6 percent from the field on the night and hit 16-of-31 three-pointers, including 12 in the second half. In the second half, the Lutes shot a blistering 63.3 percent from the field. The two periods couldn't have been more different as PLU had more turnovers (14) than made field goals (11) in the first frame, which allowed the Bearcats to lead 37-31 at the break.
Hall finished with a game-high 26 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field, while Geiger added 16 and Bingham chipped in 15. All of Bingham's points came from beyond the three-point arc after he knocked down five from deep. Geiger led the way on the backboard with seven and the Lutes held a 37-32 on the glass.
With the victory, PLU inched closer to the final Northwest Conference Tournament berth. The Lutes need just one victory over the last weekend of conference play to earn a trip to the postseason. PLU heads to Pacific University on Friday for a 6:00 p.m. tipoff before traveling to Portland to face Lewis & Clark College.
