McMINNVILLE, Ore. - Getting a huge lift from a trio of players coming off of the bench Saturday night in Ted Wilson Gymnasium, Pacific Lutheran defeated Linfield, 75-61, for its second consecutive Northwest Conference men's basketball victory.
The Lutes improved their overall record to 4-9 and their conference mark to 2-2, while Linfield is now 2-11 overall and 1-3 in the NWC.
Linfield got off to a great start, racing out to a 13-2 lead just four minutes into the contest. From that point until halftime, however, the Lutes out-scored the hosts, 39-16, to take a 41-29 advantage into the intermission.
Head coach Steve Dickerson went to his bench early and the trio of Kai Hoyt, Cole Parker and Arvid Isaksen gave the Lutes a lift. All three players finished the half with six points, and most of those came as PLU turned the game from an early Linfield rout into a 22-22 tie with 8:57 left in the period.
Pacific Lutheran got to that point on a three-point basket by Daniel Landram, and the sophomore guard followed up with a jumper in the key and another three-pointer as the Lutes surged to a 27-22 lead. Andrew Earnest followed up with a three from the deep right corner and PLU had a 30-22 edge with 6:52 on the clock.
The Wildcats came back and pulled to within two points at 31-29 with a little more 4 1/2 minutes to play, but they would not score again through the remainder of the half while the Lutes tallied 10 points. Landram hit another three, Hoyt followed up his own miss and Isaksen drained a pair of free throws before Cameron Reister ended the half with a three from the right wing.
Reister's second triple of the game gave Pacific Lutheran a 51-36 lead about 4 1/2 minutes into the final period before Linfield cut its deficit to seven points on a couple of occasions, including 57-50 on a Brandon Harris jumper with 11:07 to play. PLU again extended its lead, this time behind Cameron Schilling.
The senior wing heated up, at one point scoring 14 out of the team's 15 points. He drained back-to-back three pointers, added a jumper, and then hit two more from long range as the Lutes took a 72-55 advantage with a little more than five minutes left. From there, Pacific Lutheran held on for the win.
Schilling shot 4-for-6 from beyond the three-point line and scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half. Drew Earnest was 3-for-6 from beyond the arc on the way to 13 points, Parker finished with 12 and a team-high eight rebounds, and Landram ended up with 11 points.
The Lutes were on fire from long range, shooting 57 percent (12-for-21), and they finished at 44 percent (28-for-64) overall. PLU also won the rebound battle, 39-33.
Harris led all players with 21 points, followed by Andrew Batiuk with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. The Wildcats shot 42 percent (24-for-57) from the field.
PLU returns to conference action this coming weekend with games against Pacific on Friday night and Willamette on Saturday night. Tipoff for both contests is scheduled for 8 p.m.
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