Douglas, Sisler Lead Corban Past Bethany
SALEM, Ore. - Junior Wade Douglas (Ontario, Ore.) and senior Ben Sisler (Corvallis, Ore.) each scored a game-high 22 points, as Corban's men's basketball team picked up its first win of the season, 96-72, over the Bruins of Bethany University on Saturday inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.
As a team, the Warriors shot 59.7% (37-for-62) from the field including 11-for-22 (50.0%) from beyond the 3-point line. In the game's opening 20 minutes, Corban torched the nets shooting 20-for-32 (62.5%) from the field.
Douglas led all players shooting 11-for-13 (84.6%) from the field, while Sisler was 8-for-12 (66.7%) from the field and 6-for-10 (60.0%) from behind the arc. Senior Hannes Gehring (Lake Oswego, Ore.) led all players shooting 8-for-12 (66.7%) from the free throw line.
The Warriors scored the game's opening five points via a 3-pointer from junior Kyle Masten (Salem, Ore.) and a driving lay-up by Sisler. Even though Bethany came back to tie the score at 5-all, Corban used a 6-0 run thanks to back-to-back 3's from Sisler to build a lead and then never looked back en route to securing a 17-point halftime cushion, 49-32.
In the second half, Corban extended its lead to as much as 26 points (66-40) following a lay-up by Gehring with 12:58 remaining. Another lay-up from junior Jason Braun (Dallas, Ore.) with exactly six minutes left increased Corban's lead to 30 points (84-54) before senior Joey Jackson (Creswell, Ore.) scored his first two points of the season on a jumper in the paint to give the Warriors their largest lead of the game (94-63) with 98 seconds remaining.
Besides Douglas and Sisler's point total, Braun and Gehring each added 12 points while freshman Ian Logan (Aloha, Ore.) scored seven points -- all in the second half. Gehring led the Warriors with eight rebounds to go along with sophomore Paul Martin's (Beaverton, Ore.) seven.
For the Bruins, Gabe Jenkins tallied a team-high 15 points while Blake Ellis added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
With the win, Corban opens its 2007-08 season at 1-0 overall, while Bethany drops to 0-2 following a pair of game in the state of Oregon. The Warriors are next in action on Tuesday, November 13th, when they host first-year program Portland Bible College in an exhibition contest beginning at 7:30 p.m. inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.