TACOMA, Wash.  Throughout a regular-season conference winning streak that reached 25 Friday night, the compelling question has not been if the top-ranked Whitman Blues will win, but how.

And the list of answers sprawls with abandon.

First-year point guard Darné Duckett flirted with a triple-double in 29 minutes off the bench, and he and five other Whitman reserves combined to outscore the entire Pacific Lutheran team as the Blues romped to a 107-50 victory on the opening night of Northwest Conference men's basketball competition.

Duckett led all scorers with a career-high 25 points, dished a game-high seven assists and pulled down six rebounds for Whitman (4-0, 1-0 NWC). Starter Joey Hewitt needed only 19 minutes to add 22 points on 7-for-10 field goal shooting, Ben Beatie had a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double, and sophomores Trevor Osborne (10 points) and Jaron Kirkley (eight points, five assists) contributed to an impressive all-around bench effort which amplified rather than muted a blowout victory.

"I'm not sure that we have a 'bench'," Blues head coach Eric Bridgeland said. "We play everybody. Everyone is capable of playing and adding value. Everyone that goes out there adds value to what we're doing."

The six Whitman players that were not on the floor at the opening tip accounted for 55 points, eight steals, five blocked shots and 14 assists. As a unit, one through 11, Whitman held the Lutes to 34.5 percent shooting from the floor and forced 27 turnovers while allowing just 19 made field goals.

"Our guys have put in a lot of work defensively in practice. That's showing," said Bridgeland. "They're earning victories at the defensive end. That also starts our (fast) break and starts offense."

The Blues shot 50 percent from the floor and were excellent at the free throw line (21 of 23). Whitman won the glass 43-41 and had assists on 22 of its 39 field goals with just nine turnovers.

Three of those assists came on Duckett-to-Beatie alley-oop dunks. Duckett saw expanded minutes in relief of starting point guard Tim Howell, the two-time defending conference scoring champion who casually dropped in eight points on 4-of-6 shooting with two steals in 14 minutes.

"He's a stud," Bridgeland said of Duckett. "He doesn't quite know what he's doing yet, but he's just a player, and players figure things out quickly. He continues to add value. We're just glad he's on our side."

Whitman's defense was suffocating in the first half, as both its full-court pressure and swarming, switching man-to-man in the halfcourt bewildered the Lutes. PLU had just two made field goals over the final 9:15 of the half.

It was 63-25, Whitman, at recess.

The Blues opened the game on an 8-0 run. They had a 9-0 run and later an 11-0 surge which featured an over-the-shoulder scoop pass from Duckett to a trailing Beatie, whose two-handed catch and dunk gave the Blues a 53-18 lead.

Whitman had 11 steals, forced 16 turnovers and held the Lutes to 32.1 percent field-goal shooting (9 of 28) in the first 20 minutes, which saw the Blues lead by as many as 41 points.

Hewitt was 7 for 9 from the floor for 22 points -- his season average -- by the break. He opened the game on a personal 5-0 run. Duckett added 12 points, a team-high four rebounds and a team-high four assists in the first.

Whitman shot over 55 percent in the first half and had 14 assists against just four turnovers.

Notes: Whitman's last conference loss came on Jan. 23, 2016, when the Blues fell 79-74 to PLU at Sherwood Athletic Center. They've won 25 straight regular-season conference games since. … The Blues visit the University of Puget Sound on Saturday. UPS (6-1, 0-1) suffered its first loss of the season on Friday, falling 95-84 at home against 13th-ranked Whitworth. … Every NWC team but Pacific played on Friday. Willamette beat Lewis and Clark 64-47, and Linfield topped George Fox 94-78. Pacific opens its conference schedule against Linfield on Saturday. … Entering the start of conference play, the NWC was 34-8 against nonconference competition, with five undefeated teams: Whitman, Pacific (6-0), UPS, Linfield (5-0) and Whitworth (5-0). … Whitman entered the game first in the nation among Division III teams in turnovers forced (36.33 per game), first in steals (20.7 spg), first in scoring margin (47.0), fourth in scoring offense (117 ppg), and tied for fifth in assists (23.3 apg).