MCMINNVILLE, ORE. – For the second time in as many seasons the Linfield Wildcats men's basketball team is regular season champions of the Northwest Conference.
Winning 99-85 over the Willamette Bearcats (6-18, 3-13) on Senior Night on Saturday, Linfield clinched a share of the NWC title with an 18-6 overall record and a 13-3 mark in conference play, becoming co-champions with the Whitworth Pirates (20-4, 13-3) and the Pacific Lutheran Lutes (18-7, 13-3).
Owning the tiebreakers over the Pirates and Lutes, the Wildcats will be the number one seed in the Northwest Conference tournament, hosting the four-seed Whitman Blues (11-13, 9-7) on Thursday Feb. 24 in the first round of the Northwest Conference tournament.
It is the first time Linfield has claimed consecutive NWC championships since 1978, when the Wildcats won three straight league titles under the legendary Ted Wilson.
After honoring seniors
Dempsey Roggenbuck,
Max Lommen and
Aaron Baune the Wildcats faced a tough battle with the Bearcats, a team they had beaten by 43 points earlier this season.
Although Linfield jumped out to a 21-13 lead less than seven minutes into the game, Willamette hung with Linfield bucket-for-bucket for much of the night. They eventually took their first lead of the game at 41-40 with 4:46 to play in the first half.
The score favored the Bearcats or was tied for the rest of the half and would be tied at 55 going into the break following a made bucket by
Trey Bryant off an assist from
Mikey Hinkle.
Throughout the course of the game the lead changed hands six times and was tied 11 times.
Bryant scored the first basket of the second half as well, but the game continued to go back and forth until Linfield eventually grabbed the lead for good at 78-77 with 8:10 left to play on a made free throw by
Jackson Dupree.
From there Linfield outscored Willamette 21-8 for the remainder of the game, stretching their lead out to as much as 16 before ultimately winning 99-85 and cut down the nets in Ted Wilson Gymnasium.
"I'm glad we found a way to pull it together tonight," said head coach
Shanan Rosenberg. "Give Willamette a ton of credit, they really played well and gave us all we could handle."
Lommen finished as the leading scorer on the night for the Wildcats, scoring 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting with three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
But four other Wildcats finished in double-figures as well, with Roggenbuck adding 18 points, three rebounds and two blocks, Bryant contributing 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting with five rebounds and six assists, Dupree scoring 12 points off the bench (10 coming in the second half) with three rebounds and three steals and
Carson Bonine scoring 10 points to go with three rebounds and five assists.
Baune added nine points while tying Bryant for the team-high in rebounds with five, dishing out four assists and blocking two shots.
"I thought our seniors all played very well and I was thrilled for them to be able to experience another regular season championship," said Rosenberg. "We got excellent play off the bench from Jackson, Mikey and Alex Jackzo. They really gave us a lift when we had foul trouble and defensive troubles. Trey and Carson both played terrific, and both were very efficient."
The Bearcats were led by Jonathon Watts, who scored 22 points to go with 15 rebounds and Cedric Coward, who scored 20 points with 11 rebounds.
On the night Linfield shot 61.5 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from three (5-for-11) and 63.6 percent on free throws (14-for-22). Willamette shot 39.2 percent from the field, 23.5 percent from three (8-for-34) and 82.6 percent from the free throw line (19-for-23).
Willamette stayed in the game largely on the strength of their rebounding, beating Linfield on the glass 46-31. Â They pulled down 20 offensive rebounds leading to 25 second chance points while the 'Cats mustered only four offensive rebounds for eight second chance points.
But Linfield won in virtually every other category of the stat sheet, outscoring Willamette in the paint 60-34, getting 24 bench points to Willamette's 17 and turning the Bearcats over 15 times, leading to 20 points off turnovers while only giving up the ball eight times themselves, leading to just eight Willamette points off turnovers. Linfield also dished out 23 assists to Willamette's 16.
"Despite some major rebounding challenges tonight, we locked down on defense when it mattered most and found a way to separate," said Rosenberg.
The win completed a perfect record at home for Linfield on the regular season, going 11-0 in Ted Wilson Gymnasium. It also extended their win streak against Willamette to 13 games, going back to Feb. 5, 2016, the longest for either team in the series history.
NEXT
With the number one seed for the NWC Tournament in hand the Wildcats will host the Whitman Blues in the first round in McMinnville on Thursday with tip-off scheduled for 7:00. Should they win, they will host the winner of Whitworth and PLU and play for their first ever NWC Tournament Championship. A tournament championship would give the Wildcats the NWC's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division-III Tournament, which begins March 4. Linfield has not reached the national tournament since 2001.