SPOKANE, WASH. – The Linfield men's basketball team lost 70-55 to the St. John's Johnnies Wednesday night in the Whitworth Fieldhouse on day two of the Quality Inn Oakwood Classic.
"A tough team to rebound against tonight, but we gave ourselves a chance with low turnovers but just couldn't knock down enough open shots," said head coach
Shanan Rosenberg after the game.
The game began with both teams going back and forth, but the Johnnies (8-3, 5-1) found their first 10-point lead of the game with 8:22 left in the first half, maintaining the lead for the rest of the night.
St. John's took a 35-26 lead into halftime, and would eventually stretch the lead to as large as 17 with an 8-0 run to open the second half. But Linfield (4-6, 1-1) battled back to trim the deficit to as little as seven points on a Trey Bryan three-pointer with 7:31 left before St. John's eventually pulled away late to seal the game.
Bryant led the Wildcats in four statistical categories with 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Freshman
Chase Bennett was the only other Wildcat in double-figure scoring with a new career high of 12 on 4 for 5 shooting with two made threes. Bennett led a Linfield bench that scored 31 points, the next highest total coming from freshman
TreyVaughn Bierlink with six.
"
Chase Bennett played exceptional for us off the bench and
TreyVaughn Bierlink gave us a nice spark as well," said Rosenberg. "
Logan Morrill did a nice job against one of the best big teams in D-III."
Morrill, also a freshman, drew his first career start against the Johnnies.
"I was really proud of the group that had four freshmen playing that got us back within striking distance," said Rosenberg. "That's a great sign for the future of our team."
Linfield shot 33.9 percent from the field for the game and 31.6 percent from three (6 for 19) while going 11 for 15 from the free throw line. St. John's shot 51.1 percent from the field and an identical 6 for 19 on three-pointers, with a 16 for 19 mark from the free throw line.
Linfield assisted on over half of their made field goals while turning the ball over just six times. They also forced 12 St. John's turnovers, leading to 13 points for the Wildcats.
NEXT
Linfield will wrap up it's non-conference schedule after Christmas with a meeting in Ted Wilson Gymnasium with Illinois Wesleyan (6-4, 3-1) on Dec. 29 at 7:00.
They'll then resume Northwest Conference play on Jan. 3 in McMinnville against Willamette (3-6, 0-2) before hosting Pacific Lutheran (5-5, 0-2) on Jan. 6.