WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Whitman College opened Northwest Conference play against Linfield College Friday night in the Sherwood Center. Senior, Evan Martin and sophomore, Tim Howell combined for 31 points and eight rebounds. The Whitties took a while to get going, but eventually put the Wildcats away 89-53.
 
Whitman finished with a 13-rebound advantage against the Wildcats, while outscoring Linfield 22-7 in second half points. First year, Cedric Jacobs-Jones cleaned up the glass, leading all players with nine boards. Whitman had three players in double-figure scoring, Martin (17), Howell (14) and Jeff Kenney (10) and ran away from the Wildcats down the stretch.
 
"We felt early on they were playing harder than us," Head Coach Eric Bridgeland said. "But our guys work so hard all week long and we played harder in the second half. It was a complete flip."
 
Whitman surged ahead to a 12 point lead midway through the first half, but Linfield fought its way back into the game, cutting the Whitties' lead to four. Martin contributed early, starting 5-6 from the field and grabbing two rebounds and a block in the game's first 20 minutes, while Howell added six points.
 
The Wildcats continued to claw back into the game, eventually using a 19-9 run to pull the game within a single possession with 3:07 remaining in the half. The Whitties extended the lead back out to five, but Linfield's two free throws with four seconds remaining sent the game into the half tied 35-35.
 
Martin mentioned the team's nerves could have been the issue early on, "In the beginning it was possibly just first [conference] game jitters. We were trying to get a rhythm, but then decided we just had to play harder than them in the second half."
 
After falling behind by three, Whitman came alive with a 17-2 run in less than five minutes. Martin continued to pound down low upping his point total to 14 with just over 12 minutes remaining in the game. The Whitties had a huge advantage in the paint midway through the second half where they were outscoring the Wildcats 34-10.
 
Linfield continued to fall behind as the Whitman built its lead to 23 with eight minutes to play. The depth of the Whittie bench started wearing on the Wildcats. Howell caught fire during the 25-4 Whitman run, scoring eight points and adding to his game high 5 steals.
 
Whitman's first year athletes contributed 36 points and 19 rebounds and the bench outscored the visiting Wildcats by 11. The Whitties turned what was a close battle in the first 25 minutes into a 36 point blowout win to open conference play.
 
Looking ahead to tomorrow Bridgeland pointed to one thing he is looking for from his guys. "Be ready from the get go. Lewis and Clark ended our season last year, so I think we'll be ready to roll. It will be a battle tomorrow night." The game is set to tip at 6:00 p.m. PST.