SPOKANE, Wash. – JoJo Anderson scored 23 points, Ben Nyquist added a career-high 10 points, and Whitworth knocked down a season-high 11 three pointers as the Pirates cruised past Pacific Lutheran 85-64 on Saturday night.

Ten players scored for Whitworth as it avenged a home loss to Pacific Lutheran last season while the bench contributed 41 points.

"Last year I thought PLU out-toughed us here at home. And one of the things that was good in that game was when I went to the reserves," said coach Damion Jablonski. "They're a good ball club so it's tough to just grind it out in the half court against them all game. I thought our reserves had awesome energy tonight, they were key for us."

Whitworth (11-5 overall, 7-0 NWC) has won six straight, and tonight marked its largest conference win of the season. The Pirates shot 58.9% from the floor, and 57.9% from deep (11-19) to retain a two-game lead over the rest of the Northwest Conference.

The game was back-and-forth through the first eight minutes as each offense found its rhythm, but Whitworth took its first lead at 23-18 thanks to seven consecutive points from Diego Jacques who finished with nine.

The Pirates never gave the lead back. With 9:00 to go in the first half Whitworth got its shooters going, Stephen Behil, Anderson, and Sullivan Menard each drained triples to fuel a 16-4 run that helped Whitworth to a 46-30 lead. Anderson scored 13 in the first half shooting 5-5.

Pacific Lutheran (10-6 overall, 3-4 NWC) showed some fight out of the break, cutting a 16-point deficit in half after Sam Noland drilled back-to-back threes. Noland finished with 14 points. The Lutes had a chance to cut the lead to five but Miles Nash's open three rimmed out, and Menard capitalized with a triple on the other end to keep the rally at bay.

Whitworth took control with a 15-3 run over the next seven minutes, snuffing out any hopes of a Lute comeback. Nyquist drained a triple, Anderson and Jacques scored before Carson Talbert buried a step back jumper to balloon the lead to 71-49 with 5:54 remaining.

The Pirates are now 27-3 against the Lutes since 2011.

Whitworth will close their weekend on Sunday against Puget Sound as they look to finish off another conference weekend unbeaten.