McMINNVILLE, Ore. – With just five seconds remaining,
Molly Danielson hit the game-winning layup to lift the Linfield Wildcats 63-61 over the Northwest Eagles in front of a cheery crowd in Ted Wilson Gym on Tuesday night.
"I am really proud of my team's performance tonight, even if they were not contributing with points, they were doing the dirty work getting rebounds and handing out assists," said Danielson.
The Wildcats led to end the first quarter, 18-15, but the Eagles had a strong second quarter to lead by one at the break. Freshman guard
Delaney Ragan had 11 of the 30 points in the first half for the Wildcats, she finished with 16, which is one shy of her career-high. She also contributed with five rebounds.
There were 11 lead changes throughout the back-and-forth game, with both teams having the lead down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Linfield's largest lead of seven came in the second quarter, while Northwest's largest lead of eight came in the third.
Both teams tied the mark of 20 points in the third quarter, with the Eagles still lead 51-50 going into the final quarter, however the Wildcats had scored the last seven points of the quarter, including an and-one layup by
Kory Oleson, who had her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. The West Linn, Oregon, native also had season-high three blocks, she is 17 points away from becoming the ninth player to score 1,000 career points as a Linfield Wildcat.
Tuesday night's game was the Teddy Bear toss for Linfield where one of the sororities on campus, Phi Sigma Sigma, collected teddy bears at halftime to donate to See Ya Later Foundation and Juliette's House for children in need.
The 220 fans in attendance got to see a great game between the Eagles and the Wildcats that came down to the wire.
In the fourth quarter, Northwest took the 61-60 lead with less than a minute left, but Danielson scored the last three points of the game to lift the Wildcats to their fifth win of the season.
Danielson had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wildcats, this was her sixth double-double through the first eight games of 2019-20. She leads the Northwest Conference with 19.3 points per game and is second in rebounds per game with 11.1. She also added three assists, a block and a steal.
Despite not contributing in the points column,
Cassidy Schutz played 33 valuable minutes for the Wildcats, grabbing nine rebounds, which is a career-high for the Ukiah, California, native and six assists, which tied her season high.
Jordyn Feinauer added eight points, including two three-pointers, four rebounds and a steal, while
Hanna Bingham came off the bench playing nine minutes, which all came in the second half and added two valuable free throws that gave Linfield a 60-61 lead with just over two minutes left.
Outside of Bingham,
Alexis Heald scored four points off the bench and
Megan Miller added a layup during a 7-0 run to close out the third quarter.
Linfield is now 5-3 to start the year with two more games remaining prior to the start of conference play.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats take a two-week break for finals before welcoming the Vancouver Island Mariners to McMinnville on December 19 at 4 p.m.