Pacific Lutheran University Athletics

TACOMA, Wash. — It was a tale of two halves on Friday night as the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team negated a 14-point deficit to defeat Azusa Pacific University 88-82 in the season opener inside Olson Gymnasium.

Noah Gathings headlined the night for the Lutes, dropping 26 points with eight assists and seven rebounds in his Lute debut. 

The Host Lutes (1-0) led by six on a Pail Hobson three with 13:39 remaining in the first half but the Lutes went ice cold over the next five plus minutes with the Cougars (0-1) scoring the next 16 points to seize a double-digit lead. That advantage mushroomed to 14 on a three with 5:15 left before halftime but the Lutes slowly chipped away with Daniel Kabamba scoring in the final seconds to pull the Lutes within single digits at 45-37 at the break. 

Azusa Pacific scored the first bucket of the second half to go back up 10 before the Lutes fought back, pulling within a possession on a Caleb Berry three with 14:04 left in the game. The Cougars led by four with 11:39 left in the game before Pacific Lutheran scored the next 13 points to seize a 62-53 lead. A Charlie Kapranos three ignited the run with a Gathings trey closing off the spurt. Gathings continued to drop threes, pushing the lead to 10 and later 12 thanks to his shooting from beyond the arc. 

APU reduced the gap to just four points late in the game but it was too little too late, as the Lutes hit free throws down the stretch for the six point win. 

"We loved the guys response in the second half. We talk all the time about we need to control what we can control and keep our attention in the present moment," said Head Coach Chad Murray.

"We didn't sulk about the first half and we cleaned up our defense while also establishing a nice rhythm offensively. Obviously Noah was incredible tonight, and I thought Charlie was a stabilizing presence. Caleb made some winning plays throughout the game. We made it a little too interesting with some defensive mistakes that I will own due to it being early in the season but the guys bailed me out with some clutch free throws." 

Gathings drained four of his six three-point attempts on the night, finishing eight-for-13 from the field. Kapranos added 15 points off the bench along with five rebounds while Caleb Berry scored 10 points. 

The Lutes are back on the floor tomorrow night, hosting Augsburg University at 7 p.m.