MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield men's basketball team put together one of its best wins of the season at home Saturday night, beating the Whitworth Pirates 86-79.
 
Whitworth (11-6, 6-2) was in first place in the Northwest Conference standings heading into Saturday. Linfield (6-10, 3-5) entered Saturday looking for a bounce-back performance after a double-digit loss to Whitman the night before.
 
"What we saw tonight was the power of faith in each other, the belief in Linfield Basketball, and our seniors deciding their willingness to play impassioned and together was the only thing that mattered," said head coach Shanan Rosenberg after the win. "Whitworth is an excellent team and a program I have great respect for. It's never easy to beat them."
 
The Wildcats controlled the action for nearly the entirety of the game, taking the lead on a three-pointer by senior Mikey Hinkle to make the score 10-8 with 14:43 left in the first half. Linfield never surrendered the lead the rest of the night.
 
Hinkle drew his first career start along with fellow senior guard Jack Stallard. Hinkle contributed a career high eight points and tied his season-high with three assists in a career high 32 minutes. Stallard also added eight points with three rebounds in a career high 16 minutes.
 
From there Linfield was impossible to stop in the first half, eventually leading by as much as 18 and taking a 46-30 lead into halftime thanks to a 59.3 percent mark from the field and 62.5 percent shooting from three.
 
Linfield kept putting on the pressure out of halftime, opening the second period with a layup from Reece Gibb followed by back-to-back threes from Stallard and Carson Bonine.
 
A Cayden Lowenbach layup with 15:13 left to play gave the Wildcats a 23-point lead at 63-40, their largest lead of the night.
 
But the Pirates refused to go down easily, and down 19 points with 7:05 remaining they executed a 12-2 run over the next 2:32 to trim the deficit to single-digits for the first time since the first half.

Although Linfield got the lead back out to double-figures, leading by 10 with 3:05 remaining, Whitworth responded with a 7-0 run to make it a three point game at 81-78 with 47 seconds left.
 
But despite the late Pirate push, a three-pointer from Trey Bryant with 17 seconds on the clock and a pair of late free throws from Bonine iced it for the Wildcats to set the final score at 86-79.
 
The Wildcats were led in scoring by Bonine's 14 points, his best scoring performance since Jan. 3. Bonine hit four three's and dished out a season-high 4 assists.
 
Alex Jackzo followed with 13 points, tying his season-high while grabbing a career best 8 rebounds to lead all players in the game, recording a season-high three assists and blocking two shots.
 
Bryant contributed 10 points with four rebounds and five assists, reaching a double-digit scoring total for the sixth straight game.
 
Linfield got 34 points off the bench compared to Whitworth's 32, highlighted by Bryant and a season-high nine points from sophomore Josh Puccinelli in 13 minutes. Lowenbach added seven points and four rebounds.
 
"We had impactful contributions for everyone, there's really no one individual to point to," said Rosenberg. "I will say, it's the best I've seen Alex Jackzo play all year and I am elated for him to perform so well. Josh Puccinelli was an amazing spark for us and I could not be more happy for him. He was terrific."
 
"Mikey Hinkle, who has not played much all year, showed why I've been foolish not to play him more. He was terrific as well."
 
86 points is the second highest scoring total for Linfield this season. The Wildcats ended the night shooting 49.3 percent from the field and a season-best 47.6 percent from three (11 for 23) with a 69.2 percent mark (9 for 13) on free throws.
 
Whitworth shot 49.1 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from three (8 for 22) and 68 percent from the line (17 for 25).
 
The Wildcats also dished out 20 assists, their most since Jan. 3, while turning the ball over just eight times. They held the Pirates to 9 assists while forcing 14 turnovers, leading to 16 Linfield points off turnovers.
 
Linfield also scored 42 points in the paint compared to Whitworth's 30 and scored 11 second chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.
 
The Wildcats have now taken three out of the last four meetings with the Pirates and the last three in a row in McMinnville, feats not accomplished by the Linfield men's basketball team since the 2000-01 through 2001-02 seasons.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats will have a quick turnaround heading into a break from conference play hosting the Illinois Wesleyan Spartans (8-8, 5-4) on Monday night at 7:00 in a game rescheduled from Dec. 28.
 
They'll then resume conference play Friday, Jan. 27 in McMinnville against the Pacific Boxers (9-8, 4-4) to wrap-up their five-game homestand before visiting the George Fox Bruins (3-12, 2-5) in Newberg on Saturday, Jan. 28, kicking off a stretch of six of seven games on the road to end the season. Read Full Article