Linfield Men Suffer Third Straight Defeat

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McMINNVILLE - Upset-minded Linfield couldn’t neutralize Lewis & Clark’s 3-point shot and the result was a 75-71 Northwest Conference defeat at noisy Ted Wilson Gym Friday night.

The visiting Pioneers (16-6, 11-3 NWC) won their seventh straight conference game, holding tight on their grip of second place in the standings with two games to play.

David Berggren scored a game-high 19 points and Thomas Tillery added 17 for Lewis & Clark.

Emil Kim scored 18 points and collected a game-high 10 rebounds for Linfield, sinking 8 of 11 shots.

Andy Baldwin and Jon Weber each added 11 for the Wildcats (7-15, 2-11 NWC), who suffered their third straight defeat.

Lewis & Clark built a 14-7 lead after five minutes and led by 14, 29-15, with 9:40 left in the first half.

The Pioneers canned nine 3-pointers (on 14 attempts) in the first half and led 41-32 at intermission.

The Wildcats actually made one more field goal than the Pioneers in the period, but Linfield made just 1 of 9 from 3-point territory and that was the difference.

In the second half, the Wildcats, fueled by a boisterous crowd of 1,000, kept the lead from growing to double digits, until Joey Toboni’s 3-pointer from the left side made it 61-49 with 9 ½ minutes left to play.

Linfield’s Payton Brooks hit a 3-pointer, then Thomas Tillery missed a dunk for the Pioneers.

Kim’s layup at the other end softened L&C’s cushion to eight, 62-54.

Brooks converted another three with 3:20 left that cut the margin to six, 69-63. Linfield was within four after Jon Weber hit his second straight 3-pointer with 19 seconds left, but that was a close as the Wildcats could come.

Linfield hosts NWC rival Willamette Saturday night. Lewis & Clark is idle Saturday, then plays at home Friday against defending champion Puget Sound. Both games get underway at 8:00 PM.

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