NEWBERG, Ore. – Leading by just one point with 6:48 left in the game, the Linfield Wildcats went on a 20-8 run over the George Fox Bruins, to win 82-69 on Saturday night at the Wheeler Sports Center.
The Wildcats clinched the season series over the Bruins with the win on Saturday, taking three out of four this spring. The Wildcats are 7-1 overall and 5-1 in Northwest Conference play, the Bruins are now 2-10 overall and 2-4 in the Northwest Conference.
Linfield led by 15 points in the second half at the 15:23 mark, but George Fox made things interesting and pulled to within 62-61. A 3-pointer from
Max Lommen extended the 'Cats lead to four and started a 10-0 run. Linfield had the lead in all but 24 seconds of the game on Saturday night.
"Tough and physical game on the road tonight, I give George Fox a lot of credit for staging a huge rally," said coach
Shanan Rosenberg. "Fortunately, our guys came out of that timeout and locked them down on defense and executed on offense to seal the game."
The scoring leader for the Wildcats was
Dempsey Roggenbuck, who had 29 points on 10 for 15 shooting and made nine free-throws. He also had eight rebounds and four assists in the game.
"We struggled a bit with some strange turnovers tonight, but we also had some great assists. Credit goes to George Fox for being feisty and creating problems," said Rosenberg.
Max Lommen was second on the team with 16 points, he also had eight rebounds as well as five assists.
Will Burghardt had 14 points. In 10 minutes off the bench,
Alex Jaczko had seven points. Linfield shot 56.4 percent from the field, with Lommen, Burghardt and Roggenbuck shooting at or well above 50 percent each.
"Dempsey, Will and Max all played very well on offense in the half court and really did a great job trying to play together," added Rosenberg. "
Matt Berger and
Aaron Baune gave us another great effort on the glass and protecting the rim."
The Bruin's leading scorer was Ryan Lacey with 12 points, he had five rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Zac Schmerber contributed 10 points off the bench. All four other starters: Kalu Stricklin, Jackson Januik, JD Ahlstrom and Brendan Ritschard had eight points each.
Linfield forced 20 turnovers and held George Fox to shoot 48.1 percent from the field. The Wildcats also outrebounded the Bruins, 32-24.
Carson Bonine had three steals for Linfield as well.
"I was very proud of how we closed the game and played some high-level defense. We'll rest tomorrow and resume next week excited to face Willamette for the first time this year," concluded Rosenberg.
Roggenbuck leads the conference with a scoring average of 30 points per game and a field goal percentage of .640 this season. Burghardt is fourth in the conference with a scoring average of 15.6, Lommen's average of 14.1 is eighth.
Aaron Baune is fifth in the NWC with a rebounding average of 6.5 per game, Berger is sixth with an average of 6.4 rebounds per game.
UP NEXT
Linfield has the bye this coming week in the Northwest Conference schedule. Linfield takes on Willamette for a non-conference home-and-home series on Friday in Salem at 7 p.m. and at Ted Wilson Gym on Saturday, April 17 at 7 p.m.