WALLA WALLA, Wash. - Four Lutes finished in double figures including another big night from Sean McCurdy but it wasn't enough to unseat Northwest Conference-leading Whitman College on Saturday as the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team fell 75-67 inside the Sherwood Center.

"Tough one for us tonight as I felt like we never could establish any sort of rhythm on either end," said Head Coach Chad Murray.

"I thought we relied on Sean a little too much in the first half and we just couldn't sustain it all the way through. We did a great job hanging around and giving ourselves a chance when we had a four-point lead on a few occasions. We just couldn't get a critical stop or rebound to allow for any further separation. And unfortunately, we sort of wore down mentally in the final minutes which allowed them to pull away from us."

A Sam Noland jumper with 8:45 remaining in the game put the visiting Lutes (10-9, 4-6 NWC) up four but the Blues (15-4, 8-2 NWC) quickly answered, knifing the gap to a single point on a Grant Hunt three. A Croix Sweeney layup with 6:46 remaining put PLU up three but it would be its last lead of the night with Whitman scoring the next seven to take a 65-61 lead with 3:59 remaining.

A pair of free throws from Jackson Reisner made it a two-point contest with 2:39 remaining but the Blues hit consecutive jumpers and made their free throws down the stretch to secure the eight point win.

The first half saw four lead changes with the teams entering the locker room at the break deadlocked at 34.

McCurdy again led the Lutes, piling on 21 points with eight rebounds, eclipsing 20-points for the fourth consecutive game. Brandin Riedel was six-for-eight from the floor with 13 points with Reisner and Sam Noland both adding 11. Sweeney added seven off the bench despite seeing just 12 minutes of court time.

The Lutes had just six turnovers on the night but were unable to contain a hot shooting Whitman team that hit 55.1 percent (27-for-49) of its shots from the floor.

The Lutes are back at home on Friday, hosting George Fox University at 8 p.m. inside Olson Gymnasium.

"We're looking forward to the challenge of next week as we have a couple more opportunities to flip some games we lost in the first half of conference play."