TACOMA, Wash. --- The Pacific Lutheran Men's Basketball team closes out their non-conference schedule at home on Saturday night, dropping a close battle to the California Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, 81-79. Dom Perasso led all Lutes scorers with 16-points on a perfect five-for-five from the field.
 
The Banana Slugs opened the contest with an early 7-4 lead, then Emmett Holt and Mack Hepper led a 11-3 run for the Lutes to take a 15-10 advantage through the first six minutes. Another three from Hepper followed by five-straight points from Dom Perasso extended the PLU lead to 23-12 coming out of a Santa Cruz timeout.
 
Santa Cruz cashed in on a pair of threes to cut the deficit to 25-22 with eight left in the first, but coming out of the under-eight-minute timeout, the Slugs next run tied the game at 27 each. Four Lutes contributed to an 11-0 run over a five-minute stretch late in the first half, taking a 38-27 lead with 90-seconds to play. Santa Cruz then cut the lead to five before Jason Montes' pull up jumper ended the half with the Lutes up 42-35.
 
Julian Brown sank a pair of baskets coming out of the break, extending the Lutes lead to it's highest of the second half, 46-35. When one three fell for the Slugs, another one followed yet again, as the deep balls clawed Santa Cruz back into a 48-45 ball game early in the final half. Overall, a 16-5 run in favor of the Slugs knotted the game back up at 51 each. Tellez and Perasso gave the Lutes the lead back at 6-55 with ten minutes to play and the Slugs on their heels.
 
Emmett Holt and Miles Nash negated a pair of baskets by Santa Cruz, leading to consecutive threes from Perasso and Henry Smith to take a commanding 77-68 lead with under five-minutes to play. A 10-1 run over the course of two-and-a-half minutes cut the Lutes lead to just one, but a Nash turnover opened the door for the Slugs to take their first lead of the second half on a three; 81-79 with 1:24 remaining.
 
Although it was the Slugs first time leading since early in the first half, both squads failed to score in the final 1:24, giving Santa Cruz the 81-79 win on the road.
 
"Another tough one to swallow tonight, but all in all I thought we played pretty well minus the turnovers." Said Head Coach Chad Murray following Saturday's game.
 
"As we've navigated this tough non-conference schedule it seems we can't quite put together a full game where we hit enough of our performance goals in order to win. Tonight, we shot it well, and got some good individual performances from Dom Perasso, Miles, Ben and Emmett. Brandin also did a nice job defending #55 as best he could."
 
"We lost our way due to some silly turnovers that led to multiple transition opportunities for them. They were able to hit one more big shot than us and that's the difference in the game. We are 0-0 now and come away from our non-conference schedule with a lot of hard lessons learned and now we get to wipe our slate clean and see if we can apply what we've learned to our NWC opponents. We're excited to head to Spokane and Walla Walla next week."
 
Perasso notched a PLU-career-high in points, field goals, and free throws made on Saturday, as he led the way with 16-points. The junior transfer went a perfect five-for-five from the field, including two shots from beyond the arc and four from the charity stripe. Holt and Tellez dropped 13-points apiece, with Holt matching his career high from December 7^th against Douglas. Riedel grabbed six boards while Nash dished out a team-high six assists and three steals in the game. As a team, the Lutes shot 51.7% from the field, 41.2% form beyond the arc, and 83.3% from the free throw line; all better marks than the Slugs on Saturday.
 
The difference came in the turnover column, as the Lutes gave the ball up 16 times to the Slugs 12, giving Santa Cruz a 20-16 advantage in points off of turnovers.
 
The Lutes begin Northwest Conference play next Friday night on the road, set to face the  Whitworth Pirates in Spokane at 6 p.m.
 
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