TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team will make its first playoff appearance since the 2015-2016 season on Thursday, heading to Spokane to face Northwest Conference regular season Champion Whitworth University in the semifinals of the 2020 NWC Tournament. 

The Lutes (14-11, 10-6 NWC) only needed one victory last weekend to clinch the final playoff spot and they were able to do just that on Friday over Pacific University. The Lutes went into halftime tied with the Boxers before a strong second half performance gave the Lutes a 91-78 victory. Leighton Kingma led all Lutes with 26 points. Conor Geiger and Seth Hall also dropped 20 points and Jordan Thomas contributed with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Just for good measure the Lutes tacked on another victory on Saturday night over Lewis & Clark College to give the Lutes a four-game winning streak heading into the conference tournament. Hall led all scorers on Saturday with 29 points.

Leighton Kingma, a senior from Bellingham, Washington is looking forward to his trip to the conference tournament. At the start of the year Kingma said the team's goal was "entry into the conference tournament. Although we knew that was a lofty goal we were determined to accomplish it." The determination throughout the season led the Lutes to 10 NWC wins, a feat only achieved for the first time since the 2010-2011 season. 

For the Lutes, this is the first postseason action many players are seeing, however for Kingma, he was a part of the conference tournament his freshman year with Whitman College. Kingma will be looking to guide his fellow teammates through the conference tournament as "we are playing high caliber basketball right now and we are all excited to prove it on Thursday."



If the Lutes are looking to come away with the win they will need to slow down Ben College. The last time these two teams met, College dropped 44 points on one of his best performances of his career. Kingma said, "we are looking to dig in on defense an prevent College and others from having a huge night."



Action this Thursday will start at 7 p.m. in Spokane. If the Lutes win on Thursday they will then play the championship game on Saturday against either Linfield College or Whitman. 

Feb. 27: PLU vs. Whitworth inside the WU Fieldhouse (7 p.m.)

Series History: The Lutes and Pirates rivalry goes back to the 1946-1947 season with Whitworth owning an 88-64 overall record against the Lutes. The Lutes have lost the previous 31 matchups with the Pirates with their last win coming over 10 years ago. In the Lutes second matchup this season with Whitworth Seth Hall and Leighton Kingma both scored 20+ points for the Lutes, but Ben College's 44 was enough to give the Pirates the victory

About the Pirates: Whitworth (20-5, 14-2 NWC) clinched their playoff spot long ago, but dropped their final game last Saturday to Linfield College which only gave them the honors of Co-Conference Champions with the Wildcats. Before the loss to Linfield the Pirates were on an eight-game winning streak. 

Senior guard Ben College is the leading scorer for the Pirates averaging 22 points per game in his final season. Isaiah Hernandez, Sam Lees, and Jordan Lester are also contributing for the Pirates as they all average above ten points per game. The Pirates like to crash the glass so look for the Lutes to try to prevent Whitworth with getting a large number of offensive rebounds.