MCMINNVILLE, Ore.—The Concordia men’s basketball team lost its first game of the season 88-72 on the road against Linfield College on Saturday.

Despite the loss, Concordia (3-1) continued its hot shooting as the team hit on 50 percent of their field goals against Linfield (1-1).

However, Linfield was hitting too and especially from three-point range where the Wildcats were 11-of-20 on the night.

Zach Anderson and Teagan Dooley, in particular, hurt the Cavs as each sank five three-pointers.

A three-pointer from Dooley kicked off an early 14-0 run for Linfield that gave the team the lead at 26-11 with 13:18 remaining in the first half. Dooley also connected on back-to-back threes later in the run as well, while teammate Dakotah Pine followed those with a three-pointer of his own.

Linfield pretty much held that advantage till a small 14-6 CU run at the start of the second half cut the lead back down to 12. Drew Preuninger started the streak with a three pointer to bring it down to 57-40 with 17:39. Adam Herman then followed with a rare three after a Linfield basket to make it 59-43. After that, a pair of jumpers from Kevan West and Preuninger added to the burst, while two free throws later from Preuninger with 13:47 remaining capped it with the score 63-51.

The Cavs stayed even with Linfield for a while after that, eventually cutting the lead to ten at 68-58 off two free throws from Jourdan Sweeney with 8:45 remaining.

Linfield scored nine of the next 11 points, though, with five of them coming from Anderson to go back up 77-60 just two minutes after Concordia had cut the lead to 10.

“We had trouble guarding Anderson all night, especially when either him or Dooley took a three,” said CU head coach Brad Barbarick. “We have to learn from this as we head out on a tough road trip down in California over Thanksgiving weekend.”

Overall, Herman led the way with another impressive shooting performance, going 11-of-14 from the field for 29 points. Herman also recorded a game-high 12 rebounds with five coming on the offensive glass. Besides Herman, West and Preuninger also scored in double figures with 11 and 10 respectively, while Sweenedy added nine off the bench.

Not surprisingly, Anderson and Dooley led the way for Linfield with 33 and 21, respectively. Anderson also led the Wildcats with seven rebounds, while Pine led all players with five assists in the game.

Concordia now heads to Costa, Calif. for a pair of games at Vanguard University from Nov. 25-26. The Cavs will open with a game against host Vanguard on Friday, Nov. 25 at 4:30 p.m. before concluding the trip against Concordia-Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m.