The Linfield basketball teams take on the Warner Pacific Knights for two non-conference games this week. The teams play in Portland on Friday and in McMinnville on Saturday.
 
The women's games tip off at 12 noon on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday. The men follow shortly after on both days. Tentative start times for the men's games are 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively.
 
COVERAGE
Live video is provided by the Knights on Friday. Live statistics as well as live video are provided by the Wildcats on Saturday. Molly Danielson will call the play-by-play for the women's contest and Joe Stuart is the men's announcer on Saturday on the Linfield Sports Network.
 
THE LINFIELD WOMEN
The Wildcats started the season with two losses to the George Fox Bruins. Shasta Lofgren led the team with per-game averages of 13.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the two games, including 22 points and seven rebounds last Saturday. Freshman Peyton Bergevin scored 12 points in her college debut on Friday.
 
Point guard Paige Lafountain averaged eight points, three assists and 5.5 rebounds per game this past weekend. Delaney Ragan averaged 3.5 rebounds per game. Linfield defeated Warner Pacific 84-78 in overtime last season in a neutral site game played at Forest Grove, Ore.
 
THE WILDCATS MEN
Led by this week's Northwest Conference Student-Athlete of the Week Dempsey Roggenbuck, Linfield split its season-opening series against George Fox, winning 100-74 on Saturday. Robbenbuck averaged 29.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the two games.
 
Will Burghardt shot 64.7 percent from the field and averaged 17 points and five assists in the two games. Max Lommen ranks third on the team with 15 points and five rebounds. Aaron Baune averaged 13 points per game and Matt Berger averaged seven rebounds per game.
 
Off the bench, freshman Jackson Dupree averaged 6.5 points per game in last week's two games. Carson Bonine and Alex Jaczko averaged 5.5 points per game. As a team, Linfield shot 58.2 percent from the field against George Fox.
 
The Wildcats are 18-15 all-time against the Knights, including an 84-73 win at home in 2019-20.
 
THE WARNER PACIFIC WOMEN
The Knights are off to a 2-3 start to the season under 13^th year coach Matt Gregg. Warner Pacific went 13-16 and 10-10 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference last season.
 
Gabriella Bruno is the team's leading scorer with 15.4 points per game average. Anna Farner is averaging 6.2 rebounds per game. As a team, Warner Pacific is scoring 68.6 points per game on a field goal percentage of .376. Protecting the ball is going to be a key factor for the Wildcats as the Knights average 9.8 steals and 3.6 blocks per game.
 
THE KNIGHTS MEN
The Warner Pacific men are 1-2 and 0-2 in CCC play under first-year coach Jamayne Potts. The Knights qualified for the CCC postseason tournament last season with a conference record of 9-11. They were 14-16 overall.
 
Drew Magaoay has scored 13.5 points per game in the two games he has played. Kadeem Strickland is averaging 12.7 points through three games while shooting 45 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Christian Hodge is averaging nine rebounds per game.
 
UP NEXT
Linfield resumes Northwest Conference play against Pacific on April 2-3. The Wildcats are at home on Friday, April 2, starting at 6 p.m. and in Forest Grove on Saturday, April 3, at 4 p.m.