TACOMA, Wash. – The Pacific Lutheran men's basketball team dealt with adversity Sunday and while it didn't pay off in a victory, it should help prepare the Lutes for the rest of the season.
Playing without Jordan Thomas for most of the second half because of foul trouble, the Lutes had a last-second shot attempt to tie the game fall short in a 51-49 setback against Montana State-Northern.
"I loved the resilience the guys showed on the defensive end tonight and with our overall competitiveness," PLU coach Chad Murray said. "We have a bunch of high character guys, so I'm not surprised by our bounce back from (Saturday night)."
The Lutes (2-2 overall) dropped a tight game Saturday to Cal Lutheran 67-62, but shook that off and played a tough, grinding game against the Lights that nearly resulted in a victory.
The Lights took a 49-47 lead on a dunk by Immanuel Anderson with 4 minutes, 5 seconds remaining. After the Lights missed two free throws, Sean McCurdy scored on a layup to tie the game at 49-49 with 3:22 to go.
Neither team scored until Jesse Keltner sank two free throws with nine seconds to go for a 51-49 lead.
McCurdy then had a shot attempt in the paint blocked, but Keltner missed two free throws with 1.4 seconds left to give the Lutes one last shot.
A full-court pass from McCurdy to Brandin Riedel resulted in a tough hook shot attempt in traffic and it fell just short.
"Not having Jordan for much of the second half was tough," Murray said, "but I thought the guys responded well, which gave us an opportunity to win the game down the stretch."
Thomas finished with 10 points and four rebounds to lead the Lutes, while Jackson Reisner had eight points and Riedel had eight points and eight rebounds.
Shane McGaughey-Fick added six points and four rebounds, McCurdy had six points and eight rebounds and Jack Williams had six points, including two key 3-pointers to get the offense going early in the second half.
The Lutes, who graduated three starters, have been working on rotations in the early going as well as figuring out how to play with a new group of players.
"It's really about continuing to focus on our process to be ready and confident to face the Whits in December," said Murray about opening Northwest Conference play on Dec. 2 and 3 against Whitman and Whitworth. "This weekend was good as it exposed a few things we need to fix and figure out offensively, but it also told me that once we do, we'll be pretty tough to beat because of our defense and character."
The Lutes held the Lights to just 34-percent shooting from the field (17-of-50) and forced 14 turnovers.
PLU is back in action at 7 p.m. Wednesday in an exhibition game at Division I Seattle University.
