MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – Shasta Lofgren came off the bench and scored career-high 23 points for the Linfield Wildcats, who fell 74-65 to the nationally-ranked Whitman Blues in front of 519 fans at Ted Wilson Gym on Friday night as part of Pack the House weekend sponsored by Oregon State Credit Union.
 
The Blues, who are ranked No. 7 in the latest D3Hoops.com poll and tied for No. 9 in the latest WBCA poll, finish the regular season with a record of 23-2 overall and 15-1 in Northwest Conference play, they will be the No. 1 seed in the NWC Tournament which begins Thursday.
 
Linfield fell to 6-9 in conference play with one game to go. It is currently tied for fifth-place and a game out of the NWC Tournament and does not hold a tiebreaker over any teams ahead of it in the standings.
 
Whitman started the game on an 8-0 run, but Linfield came right back to tie at eight, as Lofgren made impact right away scoring five of those points. Lofgren was joined by Kory Oleson, who added 21 points, shooting 8 for 16 from the field.
 
The Blues led by just two at the end of the first quarter, but extended their lead to nine at the half. Two candidates for first-team all-Northwest Conference, Mady Burdett and Makana Stone each had team-high 18 points for the Blues.
 
Oleson's season scoring average of 18.4 points per game is the best in the conference, while Stone is fourth with 15.9 points per game. Oleson is also top-10 in the conference in rebounds per game with an average of six and blocks per game, averaging 1.3 per game.
 
Linfield outscored Whitman, 15-14 in the third quarter and trailed by just four at the 1:30 mark in the fourth quarter on a three by Lofgren, but Whitman made just enough free-throws to finish the regular season with a hard-fought road win.
 
The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field compared to the Blues' 40 percent field goal percentage and a 62.5 percent to 33.3 percent edge in three-point percentages, but the Wildcats missed nine crucial free-throws, while the Blues shot 20 for 25 from the stripe.
 
A key for the Blues in this one was 20 offensive rebounds and 16 second-chance points as the Wildcats had 24 total rebounds in the game, which is second-fewest in a game this season.
 
Delaney Ragan had another strong night, scoring 15 points and two rebounds. The freshman guard from Portland has reached double-figures in each of the last four games and improved her season scoring average to 10.7, which is third-best on the team.
 
Scoring an average of 11.5 points off the bench in the previous two games coming into the weekend, Friday night was a career-night for Lofgren, who played her freshman season at Warner Pacific and sophomore season at Lower Columbia Community College. The 23 points and eight made field goals are both career-highs, while her four made three-pointers are the most in a game as a Linfield Wildcat.
 
Despite not appearing into the points column in the box score, Cassidy Schutz provided the Wildcats some great hustle plays with career-high four blocks, team-high five rebounds and two assists.
 
UP NEXT
Linfield concludes the regular season on Senior Day against Whitworth on Saturday at 4 p.m. A pregame ceremony will honor the four graduating seniors, Hanna Bingham, Molly Danielson, Oleson and Schutz. The first 250 fans in attendance will also receive free t-shirts courtesy of Oregon State Credit Union.