SPOKANE, Wash. – Trailing by 11 at halftime, the Linfield Wildcats fell just short to the Whitworth Pirates, 75-72 on Friday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse. Kory Oleson led the Wildcats with season-high 29 points, including 26 in the second half, but the 'Cats game-tying three-point attempt fell just short.
 
The win improves the Pirates to 3-5 in Northwest Conference play and 10-7 overall, while the Wildcats fall to 4-3 in NWC play and have an overall record of 10-6.
 
Linfield scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer by Maggie Smith, who was 2 for 2 from beyond-the-arc to start the game. The Pirates quickly took the lead in the first quarter going on a 18-6 run and closed out the first quarter leading, 23-13.
 
Smith totaled 10 points in the game, all coming in the first half, going 3 for 5 from deep. Her three three-pointers, tied her career-high. Nine of the 13 points for Linfield in the first quarters came from threes as Oleson had the other three, Linfield made eight three-pointers in the game.
 
The Pirates were led by 17 points from Talia Brandner, 16 from Sydney Abbott and 15 from Courtney Gray as the top-three scorers and they led 38-27 at the half.  
 
The halftime break flipped the switch for the Wildcats, who started the third quarter on 15-4 run to tie the game at 42 and outscored the Pirates 25-16 in the quarter to trail by just two going into the fourth quarter.
 
Linfield was no stranger to coming from behind as it was 3-2 in games that it trailed in going into the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Cassidy Schutz with 7:58 left in the game gave Linfield a 55-54 lead, which was its first lead since 8:25 mark in the first quarter.
 
Brandner extended the Pirates lead to 68-63 with just over two minutes left, but the Wildcats came all the way back to trail by just one with 13 seconds left as a Molly Danielson layup put the 'Cats down 73-72.
 
Whitworth converted both of its free-throws to lead 75-72 and the game-tying three-point attempt by Delaney Ragan with two seconds left bounced off-the-rim to snap a four-game winning streak for Linfield.
 
The Wildcats outscored the Pirates 45-37 in the second half led in large part to Oleson's 26 points, who now leads the NWC in scoring, raising her average to 18.2 points per game.
 
Danielson grabbed 15 rebounds to go along with her 10 points for her 11^th double-double of the season, she came into the weekend, 10^th in the country with 10 double-doubles on the season. She is averaging 12.1 rebounds per game on the season, which is right-behind Pacific Lutheran's Jamie Lange's NWC-leading average of 12.5 rebounds per game.
 
 
The Linfield defense restricted Whitworth to shoot just 30 percent from the three-point line and 38.5 percent from the field. The big difference between the two squads was the Pirates shooting 19 for 25 from the free-throw line, while the Wildcats shooting just 10 for 20 from the stripe.
 
UP NEXT
Linfield travels to Walla Walla to take on Whitman on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Blues are ranked No. 9 in the latest WBCA poll and No. 12 in the latest D3Hoops.com poll.