Lute Men's Basketball vs. Willamette 2024-2025 Pacific Lutheran University Digital Game Program

Setting the Scene: Pacific Lutheran University looks to maintain its position in second place in the Northwest Conference standings, hosting Oregon rival Willamette University on Senior Night.

Series History: This is the 127th meeting between the Lutes and Bearcats with PLU owning a 69-58 edge in the all-time series. Pacific Lutheran has won seven of the last nine, including escaping Salem earlier this winter with a 76-73 victory back on Jan. 17.

About the Lutes: A dominant second half turned a nailbiter into a blowout on Tuesday night inside Olson Gymnasium as PLU imposed its will on crosstown nemesis University of Puget Sound in a 83-69 victory to sweep the season series.

Emmett Holt was on fire in the second half, scoring 23 of his career-high 33 points in the final 20 minutes of play to cement the win as the Lutes (11-11, 8-5 NWC) have been victorious in 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two Tacoma schools.

PLU led by just two points with 16:46 remaining in the game before getting eight straight points, including back-to-back treys from Henry Smith and Holt to open up a double digit advantage. The Loggers (11-11, 6-7 NWC) briefly reduced the gap to eight but the Lutes quickly reestablished a double digit buffer, leading by as many as 20 en route to the 14-point victory.

The Lutes scored the final four points of the opening half, enjoying a 34-31 lead at the break after a back and forth opening 20 minutes that featured 11 lead changes and five ties.

It was the Jason Montes show in the game's opening minutes, scoring seven of PLU's first nine points. A Logger trey made it a four-point game with 11:31 left in the period before the Lutes rattled off the next 10 points, seizing a 21-15 lead on a Holt jumper. That lead evaporated with Puget Sound scoring 10 of the next 12 to install a slim two point edge with 4:27 to play. The game would remain a one possession game the rest of the half with a Holt jumper at the buzzer making it a three-point gap in favor of the Lutes.

Holt finished the night 13-for-17 from the floor and four-for-six from beyond the arc, tallying his career-best 33 points on the strength of a huge second half performance. Montes dropped 17 points, going six-for-nine from the field while Miles Nash added nine points off the bench. Ben Tellez and Brandin Riedel led the team on the glass with five rebounds while Charlie Kapranos was the main distributor, finishing with eight assists.

PLU shot 47.5 percent (28-for-59) from the floor, including a blustering 41.2 percent (seven-for-17) from beyond the arc in the second half.

Miles Nash is the team’s leading scorer, providing a spark off the bench by averaging 14.6 points per game while Brandin Riedel nets 10.0 ppg along with a team-best 5.8 rebounds per game. Emmett Holt averages 9.6 ppg with Ben Tellez contributing 9.5 ppg.

About the Bearcats: Willamette (8-12, 2-10 NWC) dropped its first eight games of conference play but has since split its last four games, collecting a 62-56 victory over Lewis & Clark before outdueling George Fox in a high octane 111-104 affair.

Last weekend the Bearcats weren’t so fortunate, dropping a pair of home games to the Whits. Willamette was upended 82-65 by Whitman before coming up short 81-63 against Whitworth.

Four Bearcats average double digit scoring production with Josiah Frank leading the charge with a 14.6 points per game average. Kai Brown drops 12.3 ppg with D’Ante Dean and Ryder Hsiung adding 11.2 and 10.2 ppg, respectively. Dean is the Bearcats’ top rebounder, hauling in 7.7 rebounds per game while Kahiau Bruhn nets 5.3 per game.