TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team will make a trek down to Oregon this weekend to take on tough Northwest Conference rivals George Fox University and Linfield College.

The Lutes (9-10, 5-5 NWC) dropped a pair of games last weekend at home to the Whits. The Lutes were in both games until the wire against the top two teams in the conference but were unable to prevail in either of them, falling 77-66 to Whitman College and 87-81 to Whitworth University. 

The Lutes currently sit in fourth place in the NWC standings with a one game lead over George Fox who they will battle on Friday night. Senior Jacob Bingham led the Lutes with 12 points in their 11-point defeat to Whitman and Seth Hall lead the Lutes on Saturday with 23 points in the six-point setback to Whitworth. Senior Leighton Kingma contributed 20 on Saturday as well and sophomore Jordan Thomas dropped 18 points. Junior guard Blake Uyehara played some valuable minutes on Saturday night and controlled the offense in an efficient manner.

Uyehara, who hails from San Jose, California and is majoring in computer science with a minor in data science has seen a large increase in minutes in recent weeks and has handled the offense very well. 

"The main thing those games taught us was that we can play against anyone and when we are playing good basketball, we are tough to beat," said Uyehara. "The close games were essential because it allowed us to work through tough situations and prove ourselves on multiple occasions." 

With two big matchups this weekend the Lutes are looking to stay focused during both games. 

"Coach Murray has already preached to stay in the moment and be present. Playing against George Fox and Linfield this weekend, we know they will be close games but we are confident that we can compete against both teams and come out victorious if we play our style of basketball."

Action this weekend will start at 8 p.m. on Friday night against George Fox and continue at 6 p.m. on Saturday against Linfield. 

Feb. 7: PLU vs. George Fox inside Wheeler Sports Center in Newberg, Ore. (8 p.m.)

Series History: The Lutes and Bruins rivalry goes back to the 1985-1986 season with PLU owning a 28-21 overall record against George Fox. The Lutes will be looking to extend their winning streak to two games over the Bruins as they won this season's earlier matchup by a score of 87-76. In that game, Kingma led the Lutes with 26 points.

About the Bruins: George Fox (8-11, 4-6 NWC) split their two matchups last weekend, losing to Linfield on Friday night before coming back and getting the victory on Saturday night over Willamette.

Ryan Lacey is the leading scorer for the Blues averaging 15.8 points per game. Jackson Januik (11.3) and Kalu Stricklin (10.4) also average over double digits per game. The Bruins shoot 76% from the free throw line as a team, which is a conference high.

Feb. 8: PLU vs. Linfield inside Ted Wilson Gymnasium in McMinnville, Ore. (6 p.m.)

Series History: The Lutes and Wildcats rivalry goes back to the 1939-1940 season with the Lutes leading the series 77-60. However, the Lutes have lost their last five meetings between the two. The Lutes last win against Linfield came back in 2017. In the first meeting this year, Linfield came away with a 68-54 victory and Tanner Autencio led all scorers with 20 points.

About the Wildcats: Linfield (14-5, 8-2 NWC) are coming off a weekend where they picked up two wins beating George Fox by 4 and then blowing away Pacific by 29. 

Dempsey Roggenbuck is the leading scorer for the Wildcats averaging 17.7 points per game. The Wildcats also get a large portion of their scoring from Grant Gibb and Will Burghardt too as they both average over 12 points per game. The Wildcats emphasize sharing the ball and finding the open shot as they have 370 assists on the year so far.