T-Birds Close Out Thunderdome With Thriller
BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. - In the final home game for Cascade College basketball, the Thunderbirds came up short versus Corban College as the Warriors escaped with a 74-73 win. The T-Birds' Cornell Littlejohn drained a long three pointer as time expired, but the officials waved off the bucket as the shot came just a fraction after the buzzer sounded.
The visting Warriors (10-17, 6-12 CCC) gained an early advantage thanks to Ben Potloff shooting over the T-Bird zone, hitting 3 three pointers to start the game. The Corban lead stretched to as much as 14 at the 5:13 mark of the first half but Cascade fought back, closing the gap to 39-34 at the break capped by a Kao Saelee layup at the horn.
Cascade (12-14, 5-13 CCC) again started slow in the second period, letting the Warriors push their lead out to 58-46 with 11:49 to play. Back to back three pointers from Littejohn and three driving scores from Jason McCall sparked a 12-2 run pull the hosts within two, but Corban withstood the charge and went back ahead by nine on a Clay Martin trey with 1:35 left.
The T-Birds would ratched up the pressure at that point, outscoring the Warriors 8-0 the rest of the way and forcing Corban into two turnovers and four missed free throws. Littlejohn's would-be heroics came a half second late, however, and Corban celebrated the victory.
McCall led Cascade with 23 points on 11-16 shooting. Littlejohn added 17 points and 8 assists.
Potloff hit for 24 points including 6 treys to pace Corban.
T-Bird seniors Cornell Littlejohn, Kao Saelee, Ben Pawlak, Ryan Barker, and Josh Brown were honored before the game for ther contributions to Cascade basketball.