CCC Men's Hoop Roundup -- Feb. 23
EASTERN OREGON 81, NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN 65
LA GRANDE, Ore. -- The Eastern Oregon University Mountaineer men won big Saturday night over Northwest Christian College 81-65 to clinch their first regular season conference championship in 34 years.
The Mounties came out on an 8-0 run, all scored by Mark Carollo, and never looked back, as they led the rest of the game. Carollo finished with a game-high 40 points on 15 of 24 shooting from the field, and 8 of 13 from downtown. Josh Jarrett led the Beacons with 21 points and 6 rebounds.
With the win the Mounties improve to 24-4 overall and 17-3 in conference. The loss drops NCC to 10-19 overall and 7-12 in conference. The Beacons will have a shot at redemption next Tuesday as they come back to play the Mounties in the first round of the conference tournament.
SOUTHERN OREGON 65, CONCORDIA 64
ASHLAND, Ore, -- Southern Oregon Raider basketball fans bid farewell to senior Matt Cowell, a four-year starter, Saturday night at McNeal Pavilion in a wild 65-64 win over the visiting Concordia University Cavaliers from Portland.
Cowell, who played in two NAIA national tournaments and part of the NAIA No. 1-ranked Raiders in 2005-06, scored 15 points in his SOU finale and 1,068 for his career. But it was freshman Nate Rooney, who led all scorers with 18 points, who bailed the Raiders out of trouble by connecting on 4-5 three point shots and pulling down seven rebounds.
Concordia, playing without injured Desmond Meray, was led by Cody Aker with 15 points but was held to 6-16 shooting. Steve Vaughn had 10 points as did Sergio Rosario, both off the bench.
A Steve Vaughn layup with 12:24 in the first have gave the Cavaliers a lead of 19-18. They extended tghe lead to 40-33 at halftime after Vaughn scored a layin at :10.
At the 11:49 mark in second half two Trenton Fraser free throws broke a 49-49 tied and gave SOU a two point lead which they never relinquished to Concordia. A Nate Rooney three pointer with 7:50 left in the game put the Raiders up by 10 62-52.
Yes over the remainder of the game the Raiders would score only three points as Concordia cut the lead to one at the buzzer 65-64. SOU shot 47.9% for the game while the Cavaliers were 24-62 or 38%. SOU was 8-22 in three pointers while CU was 6-16. Kory Mahr led a strong rebounding effort by the Raiders with 10.
Concordia moves into the men's Cascade Conference Tournament next week as the numbere 5 seed. The Cavaliers finished the regular season 15-14 and 11-9 in league play.
For SOU, the season ended on a two game winning streak following a season of disappointment and injuries. The Raiders finished 10-20 overall and 6-14 in league play. The Raiders, however, missed the eight-team Cascade Conference Tournmanet.
Cowell was the only senior to play for SOU this season. Coach Brian McDermott, hopes the experience gained this year will bring SOU back to winning form.
EVERGREEN 96, CASCADE 89
PORTLAND, Ore. - A 17 point second half Cascade lead slowly melted away as foul trouble plagued the T-Birds in a 96-89 loss versus Evergreen State on senior night at the Thunderdome.
Cascade held a 70-53 lead with 5 minutes gone in the second half, only to see the Geoducks outscore the T-Birds 43-19 the rest of the way. With just 8 players in uniform, multiple Thunderbirds were saddled with 4 fouls for the majority of the period.
Tayo Cotton dropped in 16 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in his final game for Cascade. Kenan Powell scored a season high 17 for the 'Birds, and was joined by Ben Pawlak (14), Ryan Barker (13), Eric Taylor (12), and Erving Adams (10) in double figures.
Nick Moore poured in a game high 27 for the Greeners. Nathan Menefee added 24 points and 6 assists.
WARNER PACIFIC 70, NORTHWEST 67
PORTLAND, Ore. -- For the second straight night Warner Pacific battled back for a come from behind win 70-67 against Northwest University. Northwest led most of the way but in the closing minutes the Knights grabbed the lead and held on for the win. With under a minute to go Keegan Cook knocked down two free throws to give WPC the lead by one and after stealing the ball Scott O'Gallagher was fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws to build the lead to three. Northwest was unable to get off a shot in the closing seconds as the Knight defense disrupted the them.
O'Gallagher had another big scoring game pouring in 33 points to go along with his crucial steal late in the game. Overall the Knights struggled shooting the ball and made just 42% of their field goals. In a game that featured the two best three point shooting teams in the conference neither team performed well in that area.The Knights went just 8-26 from downtown and Northwest was worse at 6-26.
Eddie Coulson played well against the Knights for the second time this season compiling 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. Greg George chipped in 10 points and 9 rebounds and gave the Knights all they could handle keeping offensive rebounds alive. Overall the Eagles out rebounded the Knights 42-33.
Playoffs start on Wednesday as WPC will host Concordia University who beat Warner convincingly two weeks ago to split the season series with the Knights.
OREGON TECH 92, CORBAN 58
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- The Oregon Tech Hustlin’ Owls got back on the winning side with a 92-58 rout over Corban College tonight at Danny Miles Court. The win improves No. 4 Oregon Tech to 25-5, finishing CCC action with a 16-4 mark and a No. 2 seed heading into this weeks playoffs. Corban finished the year 5-15 in the CCC and out of the playoffs this season.
Corban held a three point advantage midway through the first period, but a Ryan Beesley (Jr. Rotorua, NZ) 3-point field goal tied the game at 22-22. After a Christian Cavanaugh (Jr. Mill Valley, CA) dunk put Tech up 28-26, the Owls would go on a 19-3 run to finish out the half and head to the locker room up 47-29. Oregon Tech came out in the second half rolling, as they pushed the lead to 20 points at 51-31 and built an insurmountable 30 point lead with 10:17 remaining. putting the game out of reach and go on to win by a final 92-58.
Senior Ryan Fiegi (Medford, OR), playing in his last regular season game in an Owl jersey, scored a game high 25 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and added a game high six assists. Josh Wetzler (Jr. Perth, AUS) and Brent Johnson (So. Medford, OR) each finished the night with 14 points, while Christian Cavanaugh scored 13 points and Jguwon Hogges (Jr. Atwater, CA) followed with 10.
Hannes Gehring scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the visitors with Clay Martin finishing with 10 points of his own.
The Hustlin’ Owls finished with the No. 2 seed heading into CCC playoff action and will host The College of Idaho in round one on Wednesday 2/27. The tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live in the Klamath Basin on KLAD 92.5 FM, starting at 7:00 p.m. with the Danny Miles Coaches Show. The game will also be broadcast worldwide at www.oitsports.com