TACOMA, Wash. — Willamette University and Tanner Overby were almost unstoppable in the first half, riding that 20 minute effort into a 99-70 victory over the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team on Saturday night inside Olson Gymnasium.

"We knew coming into the game t was going to be a tall task to stop Willamette overall because of our injury situation,' said Head Coach Chad Murray.

"They've been playing well and they continued that tonight. Overby was great early for them and that allowed them to get into a rhythem overall. I thought our guys battled as hard as they could and I appreciate their focus on competing and sticking to it in the second half."

The visiting Bearcats (13-9, 8-5 NWC) never trailed in the Northwest Conference showdown, getting 22 points from Overby in the first half after he shot 10-for-11 from the field over the opening 20 minutes. The rest of the Willamette team was almost as efficient, shooting at a 61.1 percent (22-for-36) clip from the floor in the first half.

A Henry Smith three tied the game at 10 with 14:45 left in the first but the Bearcats answered with the next five points and 12 of the next 14 to open their first double digit lead of the night with 12:24 to go. A Dom Perasso bucket closed the gap to six but a 10-0 Willamette run pushed the gap to 16. The Bearcats continued to cruise the rest of the half, opening up a 54-34 lead at the break.

The Bearcats kept the Lutes (10-11, 4-8 NWC) at arms length the entire second half to secure the win and a weekend sweep of the Tacoma schools.

Ben Tellez led the Lutes with 19 points, hitting four treys on the night while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out five assists. Perasso added 18 points and seven boards while Henry Smith and Julian Brown both had eight points. Jamie McGrail put up seven points with a team-high three steals in just six minutes of play.

Pacific Lutheran is back on the road next weekend, making its final trip to Oregon. The Lutes will play at Linfield University on Friday night before taking on Pacific University the following day.