SPOKANE, Wash. – Miguel Lopez and Chewy Zevenbergen stayed calm when the rest of the gym seemed caught up in the emotion of a strong start by visiting Pacific Lutheran, which allowed the two Whitworth seniors to lead the Pirates to a 64-48 victory over the Lutes on Saturday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

The Pirates improved to 11-5 overall and 7-2 in the NWC.  The Lutes fell to 7-2, 7-2.  The teams will complete their four game series on Sunday at 1:00 pm.

The game could not have started worse for Whitworth, or better for the Lutes.  PLU's defense forced the Bucs to miss their first ten shots from the floor.  The Lutes took advantage by jumping out to a 15-2 lead.  Brett Williams and Jordan Thomas each scored five points in the hot start.  But around that time Zevenbergen checked into the game and Lopez began to make shots.  Zevenbergen's dunk was the first made basket of the game for the Bucs and Rowan Anderson and Kea Vargas followed with three-pointers. 

By the time Lopez made a pair of free throws, Whitworth had outscored PLU 18-2 to take a 20-17 lead.  Zevenbergen scored twice more as the Pirates went into halftime ahead 30-26, making 10 of their last 12 shots.  Anderson had 10 at halftime, while Lopez and Zevenbergen each added eight.

Williams made a bucket for PLU to tie the game 32-32 early in the second half, but Whitworth answered with a 13-3 run to go ahead 45-35 on Garrett Paxton's three-pointer with 12:11 to play.  The Lutes got back within 45-39 on Sean McCurdy's dunk, but the Pirates used an 8-0 spurt to go up 53-39 on Anderson's layup.  Whitworth never led by less than double-digits the rest of the way.

Despite missing their first ten shots, the Pirates finished the game 24-49 (49%) from the field.  They were 4-13 (31%) from three-point range. 

Lopez made 8 of 11 shots to finish with 22 points and nine rebounds, just missing another double-double.  Anderson had 14 and Zevenbergen scored a dozen, two points shy of his career high, and blocked two shots.  Brad Lackey dished five assists.

Thomas and Seth Hall led PLU with ten points apiece.  Thomas made it a double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds.  The Lutes never found consistency in their offense and made only 19 of 61 from the floor (31%).  They were 3-17 (18%) from beyond the arc.  Whitworth limited Hall, the NWC's leading scorer, to 3 of 14 from the field.