Solomon put the Eagles into the early lead with his 3-pointer to start the game and a free throw shot by NU’s Greg George would give NU an 8-2 margin at the 14:45 mark. Another Solomon trey would give NU a 16-9 lead as the low scoring contest continued at the 11:25 mark. A Jabari McIntosh turnover would lead to a jumper by the Eagles’ Tyson Christie, giving NU an 18-9 lead with 10:20 left in the half. C of I would not go away and would battle back to within one, 18-17 on Noah Gottleib’s 3-pointer with 7:26 left until intermission. Two 3-pointers by the Eagles Rich Skillman and another by Solomon would get the NU lead back up to ten, 27-17. Northwest’s Greg Peters and Stedman Richardson would add jumpers to give the Eagles a 31-17 margin with 3:19 left in the half. A 3-pointer by Brian Bergeson would end the Coyote scoring drought at the 2:51 mark and a layup by Jabari McIntosh after a NU turnover would give Northwest a 9 point margin as the half would come to and end (31-22).

 

C of I’s Matt Ballenger would cut NU’s lead to 6, 31-25 to start the second half as the teams would then trade baskets. A steal by Blake Solomon and layup by Greg Peters would put NU up 39-29 with 13:16 left in the game. C of I would claw back to within six, 39-33 on free throws by Steve Peres at the 12:22 mark, but four straight points by NU would increase their lead to ten once again at 43-33. Northwest would build their lead back up to 14 points on a Solomon 3-point shot with 6:13 to go in the contest. A jumper by Greg George would give the Eagles their biggest lead at 56-40 with 4:20 on the clock. The closest C of I would get would be 59-50 with 2:20 left in the game as Solomon would go 8 for 8 form the free throw line and Greg George would close out the scoring with his two free throws with 25 seconds left.

 

Blake Solomon would lead Northwest U. (4-3, 1-0 CCC) with his 26 points and 90% shooting from the charity stripe (9-10). Junior Greg George and sophomore Rich Skillman each dropped in 15 points for the Eagles. George led NU with a game high 9 rebounds as C of I held the edge on the rebounding, 38-35. NU shot 40% from 2-point FG distance and 42% from beyond the 3-point arc.

 

Noah Gottleib led the College of Idaho with 15 points and 6 rebounds while teammates Matt Ballenger and Craig McGee each contributed 11 points for the Yotes. C of I shot 34% on the night from 2-point range and hit 27% of their 3-point attempts.

 

NU will play host to Eastern Oregon tomorrow night in Kirkland and the College of Idaho heads to Olympia, Wash. to play the Evergreen State College. Game time for both contests is 7:30 p.m.