Box Score FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Needing a win over the weekend to punch its ticket to the Northwest Conference Tournament, the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team delivered on Friday night, knocking off Pacific University 91-78 for the Lutes' first postseason appearance since the 2016 season.
With the win tonight, the Lutes have clinched the No. 4 seed in next weekend's NWC Tournament. PLU will travel to top-seeded Whitworth University on Thursday for the semifinals.
"These guys have been amazing during this conference season," said PLU Head Coach
Chad Murray. "I'm really proud of how we came together after opening 0-3. They believed in each other and that belief turned into a collective responsibility that has fueled our practices and allowed us to grind through both halves of the conference. We aren't done yet. We want to come out tomorrow and get that 10th win in conference and continue our momentum into the postseason."
Featuring one of the top offenses in the entire country, Pacific was held 18 points below its season average by the PLU defense. The Lutes held the Boxers to just 38.6 percent shooting from the field and dominated the home team on the glass 45-36. The PLU attack also limited transition opportunities for the Boxers as they turned the ball over just 14 times against Pacific's full court pressure.
Coming out of the locker room for the second half knotted at 34, the PLU offense caught fire in the second 20 minutes, posting 57 points and knocking down 67.7 percent of its field goal attempts. The Lutes also drilled seven three-pointers in the second frame, including four by senior
Leighton Kingma, who scored 19 of his game-high 26 in the second stanza.
Conor Geiger and
Seth Hall also hit the 20-point plateau for PLU, while sophomore
Jordan Thomas missed just one of his nine shots en route to scoring 18. Thomas also led the way with 13 rebounds, 11 of them defensive.
"The entire group was incredible in the second half tonight," said Murray. "They responded yet again to another challenge given to them at halftime when I just told them to relax and be themselves."
The Lutes pulled away from the Boxers by outscoring them by 20 points over a seven-minute span in the second half after Pacific scored the opening bucket of the second frame. The visitors led by double figures for the final 15 minutes of the game and Geiger put the icing on the cake when he threw down a slam dunk with 1:28 showing to give PLU its biggest lead of the night at 20 points.
PLU will look to continue its momentum when they close out the regular season at 6:00 p.m. against Lewis and Clark College.
