Oregon Tech's Christian Cavanaugh electrifies the large OIT crowd with a 360 dunk as No. 1 OIT downs fifth-ranked Eastern Oregon (Photo by Kelly Caleb
Tech Overcomes Halftime Deficit, Defeats Eastern 101-79
Klamath Falls, Ore. – Jguwon Hogges slashed his way to 25 second half points on his way to a career-high 27, leading the No. 1 ranked Hustlin’ Owls to a 101-79 victory over No. 5 ranked Eastern Oregon tonight at Danny Miles Court. Oregon Tech remains unbeaten on the season at 12-0 and 2-0 in conference play, while EOU drops to 6-3 and 0-2 in the conference standings.
Hogges, only 1-7 shooting in the first period, finished 10-20 from the floor and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line for his game-high 27 points. Justin Parnell followed with 25 points, 21 of those points kept the Owls close in the first half. Christian Cavanaugh knocked down 14 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Myles Daley finished with 10. Josh Wetzler grabbed a team-high eight boards to go with six points and five assists.
Eastern Oregon had four players score in double-figures, led by a team-high 23 from Neil Fryer. Paul Carollo finished with a double-double 15 point 10 rebound effort, followed by Jordan Gregg and Josh Landsverk with 11 points each.
The Owls built a nine point lead in the first period on a Justin Parnell 3-point field goal at the 13:34 mark to put Tech up 20-11. Eastern came storming back to take a 29-28 lead on a Jeremy Templeton jumper with just under eight minutes remaining, and eventually would go up by as many as eight points on a pair of Jordan Gregg free throws. The Owls would chip away at the EOU lead, and on Parnell’s final bucket of the first period with 20 seconds to go, EOU held a slim 46-44 halftime advantage.
Mike Nieraeth hit a 3-pointer to put the Owls up 47-46 on the first possession of the second half, and it was the Jguwon Hogges show after that and Eastern had now answers. Hogges scored 14 consecutive points for the Owls to give Tech a 64-57 lead, one they would not relinquish. A Myles Daley 3-pointer at the 13:09 mark gave Tech their first double-digit lead of the half, and another Hogges jumper with 5:45 remaining put the Owls up 92-72, on their way to a 101-79 victory.
Oregon Tech remains idle until Friday, December 19th when the Owls travel to Kirkland, WA to take on Northwest University in conference play.