SPOKANE, Wash. --- The Pacific Lutheran Men's Basketball team (4-6, 1-0 NWC) opened up Northwest Conference play on Friday night inside the Whitworth Fieldhouse against the Pirates (9-1, 0-1 NWC), as junior Ben Tellez's 23-points helped the Lutes earn the road victory.
 
Tellez drained a jumper on the opening possession of the game before adding the Lutes next basket over three-minutes later in a three-pointer. For the Pirates, their first three baskets of the game were each form beyond the arc, helping them climb out to their largest lead of the first half, 13-9, with 13:56 remaining.
 
A three and a half minute scoring drought struck both teams at the midway point of the first half, as each squad traded one-point leads. Mack Hepper sunk a three that later led to a Brandin Riedel and-one to cap off a PLU 6-0 run and their largest lead of the half at 20-15. The lead was squandered quickly though, as it took Whitworth just 18-seconds to tie the game at 20-20 after a three-pointer followed by a technical issued to PLU's Hepper.
 
Following a 22-22 game, Tellez got back in-stride, as Henry Smith found the guard open beyond the arc to take the lead again. He took the Lutes ensuing possession to the rim, and put the Lutes up five with 4:10 to play. A 9-2 run in favor of the Pirates closed out the first 20-minutes, as the Lutes trailed 31-29.
 
The first 2:30 of the second half saw three ties, with Riedel opening the scoring for the Lutes down low. Trailing by one, Tellez teamed up with junior Dom Perasso to drain back-to-back threes, putting the Lutes up five. Tellez added another lay-in to cap off a PLU 8-0 run, giving them the largest lead by either team in the game at 50-43 with 13:24 remaining.
 
A 13-6 run in favor of the Pirates over the next four and a half minutes tied the game four the fourth time in the half, 58-58. The two squads traded baskets and tied the game three more times, with threes from Hepper and Smith and buckets from Julian Brown and Jason Montes matching the Pirates efforts.
 
With 1:57 remaining, Tellez drilled his fifth three of the night, putting the Lutes up 72-69, and the Pirates responded with two made free throws to trail by one with 30-seconds to play. Miles Nash made a clutch jump shot to put the Lutes up three before Whitworth matched it yet again with 17-seconds to play. Tellez out the Lutes up 75-73 with 10-seconds left, before Nash stole the ball out of the Pirates hands and earned a foul call with three seconds left. Nash missed the front end of the one-and-one, but the full-court heave from the Pirates was offline, giving the Lutes the 75-73 win on the road.
 
PLU knocks off one of the nation's seven remaining undefeated teams in Division III, and get conference play started on the right foot with a win. Tellez's 23-points marks his third 13+ point game in the last four, as he notched a new PLU career-high. The guard grabbed a pair of rebounds and dished out four assists, and shot 55% from beyond the arc on nine attempts. Riedel followed with 13-points, three rebounds, and two blocks down low. Brown grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, the highest of his career.
 
In a game that saw 12 ties, the Lutes shot 49.2% from the field and 42.3% from beyond the arc, both bettering the Pirates on Friday. While the Pirates 75% from the charity stripe bested the Lutes who shot just 54.5%. The difference came off of the bench for PLU, earning 21 bench points to Whitworth's 13.
 
"I can't say enough about this group tonight. This was a total team effort all the way down the bench. Our energy was incredible right from the start and we were able to weather some storms and create some breaks for ourselves." Said Head Coach Chad Murray following the Lutes win.
 
"Ben [Tellez] had a fantastic night and hit some incredible shots for us throughout. There were plenty of highlights but the mid-lights, the little things that lead to the big things, are what we focus on. Those are the process things that often go unnoticed. Julian, Jason, Henry, Brandin, Dom, Emmett, Miles, and Mack all had moments that contributed heavily to the win. Our bench was incredible also. Back to it tomorrow against a great Whitman team."
 
The Lutes look to take their momentum into tomorrow's matchup in Walla Walla against the Whitman Blues at 4 p.m.
 
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