MCMINNVILLE, ORE. – Led by a dazzling performance from freshman
Trey Bryant and a historic night for senior
Dempsey Roggenbuck the Linfield men's basketball team got back in the win column Friday night with an 85-66 victory over George Fox.
Bryant scored a career-high 23 points on perfect 8-for-8 shooting with two made three-pointers, 5-for-6 shooting from the line, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block. 16 of his points, 7 of his rebounds and four of his assists all came in the second half.
"Wow! A remarkable night for Trey," said head coach
Shanan Rosenberg after the win. "He really shined for us tonight it was so great to see him in a scoring mode, our team needs more of that."
It was Bryant's second double-double of his career, his first coming when he recorded a triple-double against Pacific on Jan. 11
Entering the night, Roggenbuck sat fifth all-time in total points scored in program history with 1,916 career points, two points away from Bill Machamer (1953-58) for fourth place. Roggenbuck tied Machamer with a pair of free throws for his first two points of the night, before passing Machamer to stand alone at fourth-most all-time with a layup at the 14:31 mark.
Roggenbuck finished the game with 21 points on 6-for-14 shooting with two made threes, 7-of-8 shooting from the free throw line, five rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal. It was his fourth straight game scoring at least 21 points.
"Dempsey had a great game despite seeing some foul trouble and really kept our team focused and believing," said Rosenberg. "He's become a heck of a leader."
After Friday's game Roggenbuck sits at 1,937 career points. He is 129 points behind Jack Riley (1956-60) for third all-time at 2,066.
The Wildcats controlled the action all night, grabbing the lead at 6-4 on an
Aaron Baune interior jumper and never looking back. They stretched their lead to as much as 18 in the first half before taking a 45-32 lead into halftime.
The Bruins were able to trim the deficit to eight early in the second half on Austin Clark three-pointer to make the score 50-42, but that would be the closest George Fox kept the game for the remainder of the night.
Linfield immediately ripped off a 12-0 run to put their lead at 64-42, the biggest of the night, capped off by a
Jackson Dupree layup in transition off an assist by Bryant with 13:51 to play. The Wildcats' lead would never be less than 10 for the rest of the game.
Behind Bryant and Roggenbuck,
Max Lommen scored 13 points with three rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block while
Aaron Baune added 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting with eight rebounds, two assists and three blocks.
Linfield owned the stat sheet in Friday's game, shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three while holding the Bruins to 35.3 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from three. The 'Cats dominated the glass, winning the rebound battle 48-29. They scored 17 second chance points off 12 offensive rebounds, and although the Bruins pulled down 10 offensive rebounds of their own, they could only turn them into two second chance points.
Linfield also forced 12 George Fox turnovers that led to 18 points off turnovers, and although Linfield turned the ball over 15 times, the Bruins would only produce eight points as a result.
The Wildcats also dished out 23 assists to the Bruins' 10, blocked seven shots to the Bruins' one and outscored George Fox in the paint 42-16.
"Our team defense and rebounding was on point from the start," said Rosenberg. "I thought we got quality stints from
Carson Bonine, Jackson,
Alex Jaczko,
Tomas Wolber and
Nick Tripaldi as well, that was great to see."
With the win Linfield improved to 16-6 overall, 11-3 in conference play and a perfect 10-0 at home. George Fox fell to 10-12 and 5-8 against conference opponents.
The Wildcats moved up into second place in the Northwest Conference standings with Pacific Lutheran beating Whitworth 73-66 Friday night.
With at most three games left to play for every NWC squad, the top of the conference standings have PLU (16-6, 11-2) in first, Linfield in second and Whitworth in third (17-4, 10-3).
NEXT
Linfield will move on to an all-important game at PLU next Friday, Feb. 18 before returning home to host Willamette on Feb. 19. The game on the 19
th will be Senior Day, honoring Roggenbuck, Baune and Lommen.