McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Tanner Autencio, Austin Hilton and Dempsey Roggenbuck were all over the stat sheet on Saturday night as the Linfield Wildcats defeated the Pacific Lutheran Lutes 88-75 at Ted Wilson Gymnasium.
 
Roggenbuck dropped 29 points on 11 of 19 shooting, including 5 of 7 from outside the three-point line. The junior has scored at least 20 points in four of the last five games and has reached double-figures in each of the last nine.
 
Autencio had 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting, including 4 of 8 from three-point range. He added nine assists, five rebounds and three steals.

Hilton was dominant on both ends of the floor, accumulating 16 points with 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. The senior missed only one shot and one free throw on the night.

"I couldn't take Austin off the floor tonight, he was a man possessed and impacted the game in every way," said Wildcats coach Shanan Rosenberg. "It was an incredible night for him.

"Dempsey was phenomenal all weekend. He moved wonderfully off the ball. Max Lommen played very well, too. When he impacts the game on defense and with rebounding, we get a lot better."
   
In the first half, it was a tight battle between the two sides. Both teams shot around 50 percent in the half and PLU was hot from three-point range. The Lutes made 16 of 32 shots in the half while making 6 of 13 three-pointers. The Wildcats matched that total with 17 of their first 32 shots going down in the half but were 4 for 12 from three.
 
In the back-and-forth half, the lead continued to switch hands. There were five lead changes in the period, with the largest lead being Linfield's of nine-point cushion with 13 minutes left. But PLU came back via two Jacob Bingham three-pointers. Roggenbuck scored five straight points and Hilton made the gym erupt with a dunk to give Linfield the lead back. A three from Conor Geiger gave Pacific Lutheran the one-point lead at the half.
 
The Lutes opened the second half strong, getting their lead out to five. The Wildcats went on a run, with two three-pointers from Autencio and one from Roggenbuck. Threes from Aaron Baune and Roggenbuck gave Linfield a 15-point lead at the midway point of the final half.
 
Seth Hall got PLU back to within single-digits. But 16 straight points from the trio of Autencio, Hilton and Roggenbuck extended the lead back out to 16 with just over two minutes left, sealing the win for Linfield.

"Tanner really took his game to a very high level second half. He wasn't quite himself early and it was awesome to see him play back to his finest," said Rosenberg. "Aaron Baune provided some great spark for us all weekend with some very timely plays to stop runs or get a key extra possession on the offensive glass."
 
Lommen finished with 15 points and six rebounds to go along with three steals and a block in another. The Wildcats shot 49 percent from the field for the game and made 40 percent of their three-point attempts.
 
Conor Geiger led the Lutes (10-10, 6-5 in NWC) with 18 points in the losing effort. Leighton Kingma and Jacob Bingham each had 17, combining to go 8-11 from three.

"I'm really proud of our team and our devotion to bringing out everyone's best," said the coach.
 
UP NEXT
The Wildcats (16-5, 10-2 in NWC) hit the road for the final time in the regular season with matchups against Willamette in Salem Friday and Lewis & Clark in Portland on Saturday. The Pioneers upset NWC-leading Whitman on Saturday. Tipoff for Friday's Willamette game is 8 p.m. and Saturday's start time against Lewis & Clark is 6 p.m.