TACOMA, Wash. --- The Pacific Lutheran Men's Basketball team (9-10, 6-4 NWC) split the season series against the #17 Whitworth Pirates (17-2, 7-2 NWC) on Saturday night inside Olson Gymnasium, as the Pirates snapped the Lutes five-game win streak, 82-71.
 
Mack Hepper sank the first bucket of the game for the Lutes, tying the game at 2-2. But a 14-3 run in favor of the Pirates put them up 11 through the first 4:12 of the game. The lead got to as low as eight and as high as 16 in the first half, as the Lutes defense wasn't able to slow the Pirates down enough to climb back into the game.
 
Miles Nash, Brandin Riedel, and Emmett Holt handled the majority of the Lutes scoring in the opening 20-minutes, entering the break trailing by 14; 44-30. The Lutes also trailed in the first meeting between the two teams, but that time, only by two.
 
Whitworth maintained their strong grip on the double-digit lead coming out of the break, even extending their lead to upwards of 17-points on multiple occasions. With three-minutes to play, Nash and Holt headlined a 10-4 run to trail by just nine-points with 1:43 to play.
 
Ben Tellez drilled a three with 39-seconds remaining to make it an eight-point game, which allowed Head Coach Chad Murray to call a timeout and gameplan for a late comeback similar to that of the first meeting.
 
Whitworth executed on their late-game trips to the free-throw line, and cruising to a 82-71 win over PLU. The two squads split the season series, as the Pirates remain atop the NWC standings and the Lutes fall from second to fourth.
 
"We got punched in the mouth in the beginning of the game and never recovered. I was disappointed with that particularly and it was because of out inability to get stops and a horrendous job on the defensive glass." Said Head Coach Chad Murray after the game.
 
"We had to manage some different lineups and substitution patterns tonight due to a few injuries, but that's no excuse. We weren't ready to play and I'll own that. That was a good dose of humility for us and my hope is that this will get us locked in for a big upcoming week down at George Fox and Linfield."
 
Nash led the Lutes scoring efforts with 23-points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Nash went 9-17 from the field and a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line. The Lutes shot 45.6% from the field and just 23.5% (4-17) from beyond the arc.
 
The Lutes head to Oregon for their first road trip in nearly a month to take on George Fox and Linfield next weekend, looking to remain inside the top-four teams in the Northwest Conference.
 
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