McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Fourth-ranked Whitman lived up to its advance billing in a battle teams with unblemished Northwest Conference records.
 
The defending NWC champion Blues (13-1, 5-0 NWC), stretched their win streak to nine games, recording a 98-89 road victory over the Linfield Wildcats Friday night at Ted Wilson Gymnasium.
 
Linfield (11-3, 4-1 NWC) saw its own five-game win streak come to an end. Whitman scored the game's first basket and never trailed in the contest.

"We sure picked the wrong game to have some of our main guys be 'off,'" said Wildcats coach Shanan Rosenberg. "But I give a lot of credit to Whitman. That's a national championship-caliber team and they played like it."
 
1st half
The Blues built a 17-8 advantage during the game's opening seven minutes as Cedric Jacobs-Jones and Austin Butler each contributed a pair of buckets. Linfield launched a 6-0 run to pull within three points before Whitman pumped its lead back to seven. Consecutive baskets by Max Lommen brought the 'Cats to within two, 24-22, with just under six minutes to play. Whitman took its largest lead of the half, 44-31, during the final seconds of the period when Jaron Kirkley hit a  runner in the paint with five seconds on the clock.
 
Lommen led Linfield off the bench through the game's first 20 minutes, netting seven points. Dempsey Roggenbuck, the NWC's second-leading scorer, missed his opening four shots and was limited to seven first-half points.
 
Darne Dockett paced Whitman during the period, hitting 3 of 5 shots for eight points. Butler and Joey Hewitt both added seven.
 
The Wildcats shot 41.9 percent from the field in the first half while the Blues hit 39.5 percent of their shots. Whitman outrebounded Linfield 38-31 in the period as Robert Colton and Jase Harrison nabbed five boards each.
 
2nd half
The Blues increased their lead to 17 points to start the second half after Jacobs-Jones canned a jumper with three minutes gone. A rare four-point play by Trevor Osborne only three minutes later stretched the Whitman advantage to 20, 67-47.
 
The Blues held the Wildcats at bay for much of the remainder of the game before a flurry of late scoring made the final outcome respectable.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers by Linfield reserves Sandor Rodriguez and Tanner Autencio in the last minute closed the gap to under 10 points.
 
Statistically speaking
Lommen netted a career-high 21 points, hitting 9 of 11 shots, including all three of his attempts from behind the three-point arc. Roggenbuck finished with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists but the Linfield sophomore could never quite find his scoring groove, suffering through a 6-for-18 shooting night.
 
In addition to scoring 15 points, Liam O'Reilly was Linfield's top rebounder, pulling down seven boards. Aaron Baune and Autencio both chipped in with eight points off the Linfield bench.
 
Joey Hewitt paced Whitman with 14 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Jacobs-Jones added 12 points, Andrew Vickers had 10 in a reserve role, and Duckett totaled 10 points.
 
Linfield went 8 for 15 from three-point range in the second half, a considerable improvement from its 2-for-10 output in the first half.
 
The Wildcats shot 53 percent overall compared to the Blues' 46.5 percent. But Whitman outrebounded the hosts by a 44-36 margin and forced 24 Linfield turnovers.  

Rosenberg's remarks
"You just can't turn the ball over and get outrebounded against Whitman the way we did. It puts too much pressure on shooting percentages and we struggled there as well for most of the game.
 
"Max Lommen was a real bright spot for us and played his best game in a Linfield jersey tonight. I was very proud of him. I also thought Austin Hilton played well and Aaron Baune gave us good minutes off the bench. 
 
"We have to get excited in a hurry as Whitworth will be no small task (Saturday) night. They too have a national championship caliber team."

Next
Linfield faces a second top 10 opponent on Saturday night when seventh-ranked Whitworth makes its annual trek to Ted Wilson Gym. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.