The Pioneer men's basketball team rallied from down 15 to tie the Pacific Lutheran Lutes only to lose the game, 78-76 (box score), on a Lute layup with one second left. Mark Robinowitz scored 18 points to lead the Pioneers. Joey Toboni had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lutes jumped out to an early ten point lead, 13-3, in the first four minutes of the game. The Lutes extended the lead to 14, 21-7, before the Pioneers scored seven straight to get back into the game.  The Lutes went up by 14 for a second time, 30-16, with six minutes left in the first half. The Pioneers cut the lead to just five, 32-27, on a three-pointer by David Berggren (junior, Tualatin, Ore.) with 1:19 left in the half. The Lutes hit back-to-back threes to close out the half with a 38-27 advantage.

In the second half, the Lutes held their largest lead of the game, fifteen points, 49-34, with exactly 13 minutes left in the game. David Berggren began the Pioneers comeback with another three-pointer. The Pioneers got the deficit back to single digits, 54-45, with 8:45 remaining, on a layup by Tyson Papenfuss (junior, Clackamas, Ore.). A three-pointer by Mark Robinowitz (senior, Portland, Ore.) with 6:05 remaining pulled the Pioneers within four, 58-54. Another Robinowitz three-pointer with 3:12 remaining pulled the Pioneers within one, 63-62. PLU answered with a three of their own, kicking the lead back to four.

The Lutes led by six, 70-64, with 1:11 remaining. After a missed shot, Joey Toboni (senior, San Francisco, Calif.) pulled in an offensive rebound and scored, bringing the Pioneers within four with 50 seconds remaining. After the Lutes missed the front end of one-and-one freethrows, the Pioneers' Gene Rivera (senior, Kahului, Hawaii) got the defensive rebound to give the Pioneers possession. Another Toboni layup pulled the Pioneers within two. After immediately fouling, the Lutes made both freethrows to go back up four, 72-68 with 30 seconds remaining. Thomas Tillery (senior, Portland, Ore.) hit a three-pointer to make it a 72-71 game with 13 seconds remaining. After PLU made another pair of freethrows, the Pioneers had the ball trailing by three. Mark Robinowitz was fouled in the act of shooting a three with seven seconds remaining. Robinowitz went to the line, making all three foul shots to tie the game.

The Lutes had seven seconds left in the game, but it was the final 0.6 seconds that mattered. Kyle McTaggart made a layup with less than a second remaining to put PLU up 78-76. The Pioneers could not get a shot off with less than a second left and fell by that same score.

Mark Robinowitz hit five three-pointers to lead the Pioneers with 18 points. Joey Toboni scored 15 points with ten rebounds. Gene Rivera had 12 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks.

With the loss, the Pioneers fall to 11-7 (5-5 NWC). They will be back at home next weekend, hosting Whitworth Friday night at 8pm and Whitman Saturday night at 6pm. Both games will be carried live on the internet through sportsjuice.com.