WALLA WALLA, Wash. - With the NWC Tournament on the horizon, the Whitman College men's basketball team zeroed in on its final regular season game, dominating Linfield 79-65 on Senior Night at the Sherwood Center.
Nikola Trifunovic scored a team-high 17 points for the Blues who are locked in as the No. 1 seed in the league tournament set to begin Friday at the Sherwood Center. Walter Lum chipped in 15 points and Xzavier Lino flirted with a double double with nine points and eight rebounds.
Trey Bryant provided the offense for the Wildcats. He scored a game-high 30 points on 13-25 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds, also a game-high.Â
The game featured a tale of two halves. Linfield played the Blues well in the first 20 minutes and held a one-point lead at the break. Alex Jaczko hit a pair of buckets early, but it was the Trey Bryant show in the first several minutes. He twice scored at the hoop then drained a pair of three pointers to help put Linfield up 17-11 with 11:25 to play.
The Blues rallied to retake the lead. Grant Hunt hit from distance before Jander Cline converted a three-point play the old fashioned way. Back-to-back buckets from Bryant howeve reversed the tide and put Linfield up by seven points with just over eight minutes to play.Â
The Blues emerged from the locker room after halftime and outscored the Wildcats by 15 points. Lino and Lum nailed back-to-back three pointers out of the gate to put Whitman up five, then each drained another as the Blues went up 48-39 just under five minutes into the second half.
Lino nailed another three pointer moments later to bring the lead to double digits. Whitman never let the lead slip back under 10 with Jai Deshpande scoring two baskets late to put the lead at 18 points and ice the win.
Announced by the league after the game, the Blues open the Northwest Conference Tournament on Friday, Feb. 24 against fourth-seed George Fox. Tipoff at the Sherwood Center is set for 6:00 p.m. Ticket and other pertinent tournament information will be forthcoming.
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