PLU basketball off to a fast start

Photo by rocky ross

DRIVE-THROUGH. PLU’s Josh Dressler goes up for a shot in a recent game against Walla Walla.

Sophomore post Victor Bull scored a career-high 21 points and Josh Dressler chipped in 19 as the Pacific Lutheran men’s basketball team whipped Wittenberg, 80-60, on Nov. 29, in the final game of the Pacific Northwest Lutheran Invitational at PLU’s Olson Auditorium.

The Lutes finished the tournament with a 1-1 record (4-1 for the season), as did Wittenberg, Concordia-Moorhead and Concordia-Portland. Bull and Dressler earned all-tournament honors.

The Lutes defeated the Walla Walla University Wolves, 111-76, on Nov. 25. Dressler led the Lutes in scoring with 26 points and was followed by sophomore Kyle MacTaggart, who added 18 points in this home opener.

With Dressler scoring 18 points in the opening half, the Lutes built a 64-39 lead by the intermission and were never threatened in the second half.

Using a 23-2 run to finish the game, the Puget Sound Loggers sunk the Cal Maritime Keelhaulers, 82-70, in a non-conference men’s basketball game Nov. 29.

Using their familiar high-tempo offense, the Loggers raced out of the gate.

Senior forward Jason Foster, who played at Foss High School, led the way for Puget Sound in the first quarter, putting up 11 points while Robert Krauel cleaned up the glass, bringing down six boards.

Puget Sound was led by Foster, who finished with 29 points on the night. Williams finished with 14, and Krauel led the team with eight rebounds. The Loggers brought down 34 rebounds on the night and recorded five blocks.

Sorenson lifts Lutes over Wartburg

Jen Sorenson scored 23 points off the bench to lead PLU’s women to a 53-46 basketball victory over the Wartburg Knights on Nov. 29.

Sorenson, a 5-3 junior guard from Buckley, hit 4-of-9 three-point field goals and was 8-of-15 overall from the field in setting her PLU career high.

The Lutes (4-1) took a 12-7 lead nine minutes into the game on Meghan Dowling’s layup, but the Knights replied with a 6-0 run to regain the lead they held in the opening minutes. PLU took a 23-22 lead with 42 seconds left in the half on a jumper by Sorenson, but Wartburg (2-2) got layups from Ashley Schroeder and Chelsea Holliday to close out the period with a 26-23 lead.

Nikki Scott hit all six of her free throw efforts inside the final 48 seconds to ice the game for the Lutes.

Scott tied a Pacific Lutheran record, jointly held by Karen Kvale (1984), Becky Franza (2000) and Kezia Long (2005), by making all 10 of her free throw attempts during the game.

Trinity Gibbons led the Lutes with eight boards.

Named to the all-tournament team were Gibbons and Sorenson from Pacific Lutheran.

Freeman named Academic All-American

For just the third time in school history, a Puget Sound Logger football player has been named an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American. Senior offensive lineman Boone Freeman has been named a second-team selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Freeman, a physics and mathematics major carrying a 3.68 grade-point average, was named second team All-Northwest Conference after anchoring an offensive line that blocked for an average of 351.6 yards of total offense per game. Freeman earned Academic All-District honors in both 2007 and 2008.

The only other two Loggers who have been named Academic All-Americans both did so before Freeman was even born. Offensive tackle Brian Threlkeld and defensive back Buster Crook earned honors in 1982.

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