Lutes Face Loggers, Pioneers in NWC Action

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran (3-6 overall, 1-1 Northwest Conference) at Puget Sound (4-7, 0-2), Wednesday, 8 p.m.; PLU hosts Lewis & Clark (2-8, 1-1), Saturday, 8 p.m.

LISTEN TO THE LUTES: You can listen to most PLU men's basketball games on KLAY 1180 AM in the Tacoma area and also at www.klay1180.com. Long-time announcer Bob Robertson returns to call the action for the Lutes. The game at UPS will be broadcast on KLAY, but the Lewis & Clark game will not. You can, however, hear the Lewis & Clark game through the PLU athletics web site (http://www.golutes.com/information/listenlive) with Paul DiPietro and Bret Handy calling the action.

MORE CONFERENCE ACTON: After splitting a pair of games during last weekend's Northwest Conference opening action, Pacific Lutheran hopes to pick up a pair of victories against two of the conference's perennial powerhouses during the past decade. On Wednesday, the Lutes travel across Tacoma to battle the defending NWC champion Puget Sound Loggers, and on Saturday they open the home portion of their conference slate when they host the Lewis & Clark Pioneers. Puget Sound won four conference championships and Lewis & Clark garnered three NWC titles (one shared) in the past decade.

ABOUT THE LOGGERS: The 2008-09 Puget Sound Loggers became the first team in NWC men's basketball history to roll through the conference schedule without a loss, finishing with a 16-0 record and advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III national tournament. That team featured three first team All-Northwest Conference honorees in Antwan Williams, Robert Krauel and NWC Player of the Year Jason Foster. All three of those players graduated, however, and that clearly has taken a toll on this year's youthful UPS squad. Puget Sound is just 4-7 overall this year, including last weekend's Northwest Conference road losses to George Fox (79-72) and Linfield (93-73). Before Northwest Conference men's basketball fans start celebrating the demise of Puget Sound, however, realize this is still a very talented and potent team that simply needs time for the young players to adjust to the uptempo, high-pressure style employed by 2008-09 NWC Coach of the Year Justin Lunt. This season, the Loggers are getting their best production from their veteran players. Austin Boyce, a 6-5 senior forward, leads the team with an average of 16.7 points per game, and he adds 5.3 rebounds per contest. Nadav Heyman, a 6-2 sophomore point guard and returning starter, averages 13.0 points per game, though he did not play in last weekend's losses. Colin Koach, a 6-1 senior guard known in recent years for his dogged defense, has added a scoring element to his game and averages 12.0 points per contest. Finally, 6-5 sophomore forward Kaleb Shelton leads the Loggers with 5.6 rebounds per contest while scoring at an 11.7 points per game clip. The Loggers need to improve their rebounding, where opponents lead by an average of 8.1 rebounds per game, and their shooting, as they convert just 39 percent of their shots from the field, including 25 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Their defense, however, continues to menace opponents to the tune of 22.7 turnovers per contest.

THE SERIES: While Pacific Lutheran leads the all-time series against the Loggers, 63-59, Puget Sound has won 13 straight in the series dating back to a 49-46 Lutes victory during the 2002-03 season. UPS had a pair of relatively easy wins last year (77-60 and 84-59), while the two games playing during the 2007-08 season went into overtime before the Loggers prevailed (125-116 and 98-97).

ABOUT THE PIONEERS: Lewis & Clark tied for the conference title during the 2006-07 season and placed third each of the past two campaigns. It has started slowly this year, winning just two of its 10 games, but the pre-conference schedule was very difficult. The Pioneers opened their conference slate last weekend with an overtime win over Whitman and a loss to Whitworth. Kelly Edwards, a 6-3 senior guard out of O'Dea High School, leads the Pios with an average of 18.4 points per game. James Hollins, a 6-3 sophomore guard, averages 17.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game and scored 45 points in an early season contest. Josh Kollasch is a talented 6-3 senior point guard who averages 10.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Head coach Bob Gaillard is the dean of Northwest Conference coaches, now in his 21st year at Lewis & Clark.

THE SERIES: PLU leads the all-time series against Lewis & Clark, 63-48, though the Pioneers won last year's games by 78-69 and 78-73 scores. PLU swept Lewis & Clark during the 2007-08 season, 108-95 and 78-76. Lewis & Clark has won seven of the last nine meetings between the two teams.

LINFIELD 101, PLU 77: The Northwest Conference opener did not go well for PLU as Joel Linfield shot 61 percent from the field in a 101-77 victory last Saturday night at Ted Wilson Gymnasium in McMinnville, Ore. Joel Paul came off the bench to sink 9-of-11 shots from the floor, including all four of his attempts in the first half, on the way to a career-high 23 points. Four other Wildcats reached double figures in scoring. Playing his first game since November, K.C. Wiser pumped in 17 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Cody Tesoro hit a trio of 3-pointers on his way to 15 points, Zach Anderson had 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, and Joseph Vance contributed 10 points to go with five assists and two steals. Kyle MacTaggart scored a team-best 22 points for PLU, Victor Bull had 13 points and six rebounds, and Gabe Smith had 11 points and four rebounds to pace the Lutes. Linfield built to a 48-36 halftime lead and led by as many as 29 points in the closing minutes. Linfield finished with a .613 shooting clip while the Lutes shot .400 from the field.

PLU 67, PACIFIC 63: On Sunday, one night after losing to Linfield, PLU came back against a rested Pacific team and pulled out a 67-63 victory. The host Boxers had Saturday night off but it was the Lutes who looked sharper in the second half, rallying from a 31-27 halftime deficit. The Lutes connected on 21-of-27 from the charity stripe, including 20-of-24 in a second half. Fourteen of those came in the final nine minutes, allowing the Lutes to erase a seven-point Pacific lead and take the win. James Conti led three PLU players in double figures with 16 points. Kyle MacTaggart added 15 points and eight rebounds while Zachary Klein came off the bench for a career-high 15 points. The Lutes shot 44.7 percent from the field (21-of-47) and 4-of-9 from the three-point arc, including a perfect 3-of-3 by Klein.

LUTES BY THE NUMBERS: Kyle MacTaggart, a 6-4 junior wing from Goodyear, Ariz., leads the Lutes in scoring with an average of 13.3 points per game. James Conti, a 5-10 sophomore point guard from Edmonds, scores 11.0 points and 3.8 assists per game, while Victor Bull, a 6-7 junior post from San Francisco, averages 10.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Bull averages 29.6 minutes per game to lead a team that has eight players seeing an average of at least 14 minutes per contest. PLU is shooting 36 percent from three-point range but needs to figure out how to slow down their opponents who are making nearly 52 percent of their attempts from the field. They've also got to figure out how to get more first half offense - while PLU has been out-scored by just one point (354-353) overall in the second half this season, they have been out-scored by 58 points (333-275) in the opening period. The Lutes, additionally, are a minus 2.4 rebounds per game compared to their opponents.

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