SALEM, Ore. – More video-game-like offensive numbers highlighted a dominant win by the Linfield Wildcats over the Willamette Bearcats, 91-50, on Friday night at Cone Field House.
"We had many guys play tonight and many played well," said Linfield coach
Shanan Rosenberg. "I thought what opened it up was our defense and rebounding halfway through the first half."
The Wildcats had some gaudy first half numbers in this one and the defensive display from Linfield was remarkable. Willamette only scored 24 points in the opening frame of this one, while Linfield doubled that score with 48 points of their own after a buzzer-beating three to end the half.
Linfield shot just over 60 percent for most of the half, including 10 first half three pointers.
Austin Hilton scored 12 of the first 18 points from the Wildcats, consistently knocking down mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper.
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Aaron Baune,
Carson Bonine and
Will Burghardt did a great job with the second unit, extending our lead and playing very hard," said Rosenberg. "That was great to see. Our starters did a great job of playing with purpose second half. That led to us being able to play all our players."
Baune led Linfield in scoring with 14 points as the entire Linfield roster stepped on the court in this one.
Grant Gibb had a strong 18 minutes of run, scoring 13 points and hitting three, three-pointers. Gibb was tied with
Max Lommen with the team lead in rebounding with six apiece.
The Wildcats made seven of their first 12 three's to open the game and a monstrous first-half dunk from Lommen stretched the Linfield lead to 19 with five minutes left in the half.
The second half of this game was tough to watch, as turnovers and fouls marred the final half. Linfield forced 18 Willamette turnovers in the first 30 minutes of the game, compared to eight of their own to extend the lead out to 72-26. As more and more reserves entered the game, the Wildcats numbers came down to earth but the future of the program was on full display and there is a lot of potential in the future for Linfield.
Linfield finished the game making 31 of 64 shots and made 16 of 32 three-pointers.
Tanner Autencio led the team with five assists and Lommen had three with six steals.
Matt Berger had four thefts and was plus-30 for the game.
Jack Boydell was the leading scorer for the Bearcats (1-21, 0-13 in NWC) with 12 points. Willamette has lost 19 straight basketball games.
"We know we are playing an outstanding and surging Lewis & Clark team on the road (Saturday night)," said Rosenberg. "We have to keep our focus."
UP NEXT
Linfield (17-5, 11-2 in NWC) heads to Portland to square off against the Lewis & Clark Pioneers (10-12, 6-7 in NWC). Coverage on the Linfield Sports Network begins at 5:45, with tipoff at 6.