NEWBERG, Ore. – With balanced scoring up and down the lineup, the 11th-ranked George Fox Bruins dealt the Linfield Wildcats a 76-49 defeat in the opening round of the Northwest Conference Tournament Thursday night inside Wheeler Sports Center.
George Fox (23-3), the NWC's regular-season champion, built a double-digit first quarter lead, then gradually extended it over the remaining three quarters on the way to the decisive playoff victory.
Making its first NWC playoff appearance in 12 years, Linfield (12-14) felt a great sense of accomplishment just reaching the postseason. The Wildcats' razor-thin lineup of seven healthy players couldn't keep pace with a Bruins' bench that went 15 deep.
"I can't talk enough about our team's resiliency and their fight," said Wildcats coach
Casey Bunn-Wilson afterward. "I'm real proud of them and the way they finished. I don't know if there are many other teams in the conference that can do what we did with the numbers we had."
'Cat stats
Kory Oleson topped the Linfield scoring column with 17 points. She also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
Cameron Reuter netted 13 points on 4 of 8 shooting.
Molly Danielson, the NWC's second leading scorer at 19.2 points per game, was held to 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Wildcats shot 39.6 percent from the field and the Bruins only slightly better at 42.9 percent. But the Bruins were more effective from outside the three-point arc, hitting six long bombs compared to the Wildcats' one. George Fox also was awarded 10 more free throw attempts, going 16 for 25 on the night. Linfield made 10 of 15, including four from Danielson.
Linfield played the first three quarters without sinking a single three-point shot, preferring instead to work the ball inside to its two proven inside scorers, Oleson and Danielson.
Cassidy Schutz hit the Wildcats' lone three with just 1:02 left to play.
Bruins box
Haley Stowbridge came off the bench to lead the Bruins with 14 points. She made 6 of 11 shots, including a pair of three pointers. Kylin Collman and Tavin Headings both chipped in 11 points. Haylee Hutzler and Emily Holder led GFU on the glass, both collaring six rebounds.
The Bruins used their long bench to full advantage, outscoring the Linfield reserves 40-2. George Fox also capitalized on 27 Linfield turnovers, converting those miscues into 29 points.
How it played out
With Headings scoring five points in the early going, the Bruins built a comfortable 21-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Despite the lopsided score, the Wildcats were the better team on the glass, outrebounding the hosts by a 13-8 margin during the first 10 minutes.
As George Fox began to find use its depth to gradually overtake Linfield, the differential on the backboards shifted to favor the Bruins, who grabbed 14 second-quarter rebounds to the Wildcats' six. Oleson led Linfield with 11 first-half points, hitting 5 of 10 shots. George Fox led 37-23 at the intermission.
Next
With only
Bailey McDevitt expected to graduate and six recruits already verbally committing to joining the team in the fall, the future looks bright for Linfield. Point guard
Brooke McCarty, who was sidelined all season with a knee injury, is also expected to be in uniform when practice resumes in October.
"We're very excited and very motivated (for next year) now that we know what this feels like," Bunn-Wilson said of her squad's postseason appearance. "We learned a lot this season. Having a young group and being able to accomplish what we have is very motivating for our program. We're just going to keep going and keep working hard."