By Jeremy Martin
Sports Reporter

The final score may have said otherwise, but Thursday night's Seattle Lutheran 78-41 victory over Puget Sound Adventist was a hard fought, grind it out affair that didn't feel safe until mid way through the 3rd quarter when the Saints held a 31 point lead.

A physical evening, both team's spent plenty of time at the charity stripe as neither squad was willing to give up easy runs at the basket.

The aggressive play led to a few turnovers on both sides, but it also produced plenty of Saint fast break points coming off steals and long outlet passes.

“We try to play a high tempo, pressure defense and we let that translate into our offense. We love to push, we love to run the early break and take what we can out of it,” Lutheran head coach Brett Kapels said.
Lutheran put an emphasis on shutting down passing lanes, tallying 19 steals with seven players recording at least one takeaway.

“The boys did a pretty good job of playing smart, being the right position and putting pressure on to create turnovers,” Kapels said.

The tenacity allowed the Saints to gain an early advantage, with the team holding a wire to wire lead.
Herman Rusom's triple with 1:50 to go in the first quarter gave the hosts a double digit margin, which they would not relinquish for the remainder of the night.

Rusom's three pointer was just the first in what turned out to be a deep ball shooting exhibition with Lutheran letting it fly all night, nailing eight shots from beyond the arc.

“They love to shoot, sometime its hard to get them to stop,” Kapels joked.

It was a total team effort offensively as eight Saints scored, led by Josh Meyer's 19 points and 5 steals. Xavier Turner netted 16 points and five rebounds for Lutheran while also throwing down a huge fast break dunk in the first quarter.

Rusom finished with 10 points, including two three pointers while also grabbing four rebounds and dishing out four assists.

“The boys are a great unit, they're really unselfish, they like to get everyone involved. They're a blessing to coach,” Kapels said.

The Sharks on the other hand saw the majority of its production coming from Nick Perry who finished with 15 points, four assists and a game high 12 rebounds.
Kyle Manley also played well for Adventist finishing with 9 points. Josh Spangler also had 9, drilling three triples on the night.

Up next for Lutheran is a Saturday night match up with Northwest Yeshiva which will conclude a three game home stand over a five day period.