McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- The Lewis & Clark Pioneers ended arguably their toughest stretch of the Northwest Conference season with a 70-57 loss at the Linfield Wildcats on Friday night at Ted Wilson Gymnasium.

Daelon Floyd had 10 first-half points to follow 11 apiece from Zeke Crawford and Brian Smith. The defeat ends a stretch of three straight road games against the teams picked at the top of the NWC preseason coaches poll.

Lewis & Clark made a season-best 11 3-pointers, but was hurt by two significant scoring droughts in the game. The Pioneers were outshot 44 percent ot 30 percent in the second half.

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Key Moments

The Pioneers scored just five points over an eight-minute stretch in the second half as Linfield built a couple of 10-point leads. Eventually, the Wildcats went ahead by 14 with just under four minutes remaining.

Coming into the game, Linfield (11-3, 5-0 NWC) was last in the NWC in offensive rebounds, but the Wildcats grabbed eight in the first half to build a 12-2 advantage in second-chance points. They finished the game ahead 16-5 on putbacks and with a 52-18 advantage in points in the paint.

Floyd scored five of the Pios' first eight points, and Smith made his first two 3-point attempts, as the Pios built a 15-6 lead in the first 5:30 of the game. Smith finished 3 for 5 from deep with a career-best seven assists, the game high.

One of four in double figures for Linfield, Dempsey Roggenbuck scored 12 of his game-high 22 points in the first half. 

Deeper Look

• In his third-straight start, Brenden Patrick had a career-high three assists to go with eight points
• Ryan Cibull hit both of his 3-point tries for six points, four rebounds and two assists in a career-high 35 minutes
• Jack Henderson played 22 minutes and took eight 3-point attempts, both career highs, while earning his first career block
• Of the four ties in the game, three came on Lewis & Clark 3-pointers in the first half: Crawford with 5:35 left, Floyd with 3:51 remaining and Andrew Panicacci with 42 seconds on the clock
• Floyd was over 60 percent shooting for the third time in his last five games
• Linfield went more than 90 seconds before making its first shot, while the Pios (5-9, 1-4 NWC) scored their initial bucket with 17:55 left
• Christian Pitcher missed his first career game
• Of their five NWC games so far, four have been on the road
• The last three games have been against teams (Whitman, Linfield and Whitworth) that have a combined 15-0 record in the conference after Friday night's games

Looking Ahead

Lewis & Clark wraps up the weekend with a home game against Puget Sound on Saturday.