Mountaineers Dominate Walla Walla
HERMISTON, Ore. -- The Eastern Oregon University Men's Basketball team kicked their season off right with a 108-78 win over Walla Walla University at Hermiston High School.
The 2007-2008 team has a lot to live up to after winning a school record 23 games last season. Thursday night the made a step in the right direction by beating down a much improved Wolves team from a year ago.
After a bit of a rough start where the Mounties traded baskets for the majority of the first half EOU put together a run of defensive stops combined with some timely shooting to earn a 16 point advantage at the break.
The second half was all EOU as they pushed the margin of victory to 30 before nights end.
Hermiston High grad Mark Carollo felt right at home playing in his old stomping grounds as he tossed in a game high 22 points on 8-16 shooting. The 6'5 senior wing also pulled down 7 boards in 26 minutes of action. Mark's big, little brother Paul, also enjoyed his time playing at his former home gym as he snatched a game high 11 boards while scoring 6 points on 3-4 shooting.
While the older Carollo did lead the Mounties in scoring it was a team effort that got the job done as 5 different players scored in double figures while Senior guard Nick Finley finished with 9.
Point guard Jeremy Templeton was key during the Mounties run at the end of the first half. The Junior finished with 17 points 6 assists to just a single turnover.
Senior big man Kyle Janke had 17 points in 18 minutes. Dan Blanchard and Josh Landsverk scored 11 and 10 respectively.
Eastern will hit the road next weekend to play Western Montana and Montana Tech.