TACOMA - Pacific Lutheran put together its best half of the season on Wednesday night in beating the Puget Sound Loggers, 78-64, in a Northwest Conference men's basketball game played in Memorial Fieldhouse.
The second half performance, coming on the heels of a very solid opening period, made the difference in the Lutes ending a four-game losing streak. In picking up their first conference win of the season against two losses, PLU improved to 3-9 overall. Puget Sound dropped to 5-7 overall and 0-3 in the conference.
After some close losses to a handful of tough non-conference opponents, the Lutes got the job done against the rival Loggers. "We played to win instead of trying to figure out how not to lose," PLU head coach Steve Dickerson said.
Drew Earnest had it going on early, finding the range from the deep right corner and knocking down a trio of three-pointers as the Lutes raced to a 23-14 lead with 7:38 left in the opening half. At that point Earnest led all players with 11 points.
For the next three minutes the Lutes went cold from the field and the Loggers scored eight straight, the last six by Derek Jobe, as the Loggers cut their deficit to 23-22 with 5:50 on the clock. Earnest answered with another three and PLU kept the hosts at bay through the remainder of the half, taking a 36-29 lead into the locker room when Daniel Landram knocked down a mid-range jumper with six seconds to play.
At the half it was a story of the Lutes versus Jobe as the Puget Sound sophomore, named the 2012 D3hoops.com West Region Player of the Year, had gone off for 18 points, including five treys. Earnest led the Lutes with 14 points through the opening 20 minutes.
Pacific Lutheran opened up its first double-digit lead at 48-38 on Cameron Schilling's fastbreak layup with 13:08 to play, and tough PLU defense the next time down the floor led to another breakaway score from Arvid Isaksen as the Lutes went ahead 50-38 with 12:49 to play.
Over the next several minutes the Loggers cutt their deficit to nine points on three occasions, but the Lutes turned it back on to build a 19-point lead. A jumper by Landram, two free throws followed by a jumper from Kai Hoyt, and two more free throws from Bryce Miller gave the Lutes their biggest lead at 68-49 lead with 6:00 remaining.
Puget Sound put together one final run at the Lutes, Rex Holmes scoring the final six points during a 10-0 run that made the score 68-59 with 3:44 to play.
PLU made a final game-deciding answer. Isaksen knocked down a pair of free throws and Miller added two more free tosses and a pair of layups, the second on a dandy pass from Isaksen, as the Lutes again went up by 17 at the two-minute mark, putting the game on ice.
Earnest led a foursome of Lutes in double figures with 18 points. Landram finished the game with 16, followed by Miller with 13 and Schilling with 12. Miller made it a double-double with 10 rebounds, leading all players in that statistic.
The Lutes finished the game shooting 43 percent (26-for-61) overall and 40 percent (6-for-15) from three-point range. More importantly, PLU was an impressive 20-for-24 from the foul line and also owned a convincing 45-33 rebounding advantage. Schilling grabbed nine boards and Landram added eight to go along with four assists and three steals.
For the Loggers, Jobe finished with the same 18 points that he had at the intermission. Rex Nelson scored 12 points off the bench, while leading scorer Riggs Yarbro was limited to 10.
Puget Sound shot 36 percent (23-for-64) overall and 38 percent (8-for-21) from beyond the arc.
PLU returns to conference action at 8 p.m. Saturday when it plays the Linfield Wildcats in McMinnville, Ore.
- PLU -