MCMINNVILLE, ORE. – The Linfield men's basketball team fell at home to the Puget Sound Loggers on Saturday night, losing 76-71.
"Another gut-wrencher," said head coach
Shanan Rosenberg after the game. "It's really too bad because our kids were really ready to play and did so many positive things."
The Wildcats (5-9, 2-4) got off to a hot start in the first half, immediately jumping out to a 12-2 lead thanks to four quick three-pointers from
Reece Gibb,
JT Estes and
Trey Bryant.
Linfield controlled the action through most of the first half thanks to the three-point shot, hitting 8 of 13 from beyond the arc in the half while holding Puget Sound (11-4, 4-2), to just 4 for 13 from three.
The 'Cats led by as much as 21 points in the first half with the score 37-16 with 4:41 left to play before the Loggers responded with a 17-2 run capped by a buzzer-beating three from Mussie Teclamariam to make the score 39-33 at halftime.
The Loggers continued their strong play to start the second half and managed to tie the score at 42 with 16:35 remaining before claiming their first lead of the game on their next offensive possession thanks to a made free throw by Liam Ruttledge.
Ruttledge led the way for the Loggers, finishing with 21 points including 16 in the second half.
The game went back and forth from there with five lead changes and three ties before Puget Sound claimed the lead for good on a made three to make the score 65-63 with just 2:14 to play.
Linfield found itself within a possession after a layup by
Danilo Petrovic to make the score 74-71 with seven seconds left, but the Wildcats could not get the missed free throws they needed from the Loggers on the other end to put themselves in a position to tie the game.
"UPS is a very good team and an excellent rebounding team," said Rosenberg. "We did a good job holding our own there, but they just made a few more plays."
The Wildcats were led in scoring by Bryant, who had 22 points, his second consecutive game with at least 20. Bryant shot 8 for 17 from the field and 4 of 7 from three to go with five rebounds, four assists and a career high five steals.
Petrovic followed as the only other Linfield player in double-figures, the freshman recording 12 points to go with a game-high eight rebounds and three steals.
Gibb added nine points and four rebounds while Estes contributed seven points, a career-high six assists and two steals. Freshman forward
Logan Morrill drew his third career start and posted a career high three blocks.
"
Trey Bryant,
Reece Gibb and
Logan Morrill really played well tonight, and I'm proud of our continued improvement and development by our whole team," said Rosenberg.
Linfield ended the night shooting 42.4 percent from the field and a season-high 57.9 percent from three, going 11 for 19 from outside. The Wildcats also shot 76.9 percent (10 for 13) on free throws.
Puget Sound shot 42 percent from the field and 39.1 percent (9 for 23) from three. The Loggers got a big boost from the free throw line, hitting 25 of 30 attempts (83.3 percent), including an impressive 18 for 21 in the second half.
The rebound battle went even at 34. Linfield pulled down 11 offensive rebounds to Puget Sound's nine but was only able to muster 2 second chance points.
The Wildcats won the turnover battle, committing just 15 while forcing the Loggers to cough it up 17 times, leading to 24 points off turnovers for Linfield.
NEXT
Linfield has a busy week on the horizon, in which the 'Cats will host three games in four days against tough opponents, including two against the pair of teams tied for first in the Northwest Conference.
On Friday, Jan. 20 the Whitman Blues (12-3, 5-1) come to town before Linfield hosts the Whitworth Pirates (10-5, 5-1) on Saturday. Then on Monday, Jan. 23 Linfield will take a break from conference play to host the Illinois Wesleyan Spartans (8-6, 5-2) in a game rescheduled from Dec. 29.