KIRKLAND, Wash. – The NU Eagles held off a comeback minded Cascade team for a 93-82 conference victory tonight.

 

It looked like the game would be a runaway as NU bolted out to a 31-7 lead in the first 10 minutes of the first half, but Cascade would not give up that easily and they would patiently chip away at the Eagle lead with full-court pressure and cut it to 14 points with 3:54 to go in the half on Erving Adams two free throws. Elliot Barker’s 3-pointer would pull the Thunderbirds to within 11, 45-34 with just 59 seconds left in the half and after two Rich Skillman free throws, Elliot Barker would tip in a Josh Brown miss at the buzzer as the teams headed to the locker room with the score, 47-36.

 

In the second half, a Rich Skillman free throw would put NU up by 11 points, 58-47, but a lay-up and jumper by Cascade’s Kao Saelee would make it 58-51 with 13:35 left in the contest. Greg Peter’s jumper at the 12:45 mark would put NU up by ten, 61-51, once again, the T-Birds would not go away as Ryan Barker would drop his jumper and Jared Mace would knock down his shot to make it 63-55 with 11:50 left on the clock. But then the Eagles would go on a 5-0 run to increase their lead to 68-55 as Greg George laid the ball in the basket at 10:08 left. With NU leading 75-61, Lucas Ashe would bury his jumper, teammate Jason Waltman would hit one from the paint and Blake Solomon would make his free throw shot to put the Eagles up 80-64 with 5:53 remaining in the game. Jason Waltman would follow up 8 seconds later with another jumper to give NU its biggest lead of the half, 82-64. The T-birds would out score NU 15-11 the remainder of the way as both teams began making substitutions.

 

Senior Eddie Coulson (N. Las Vegas, Nev.) led Northwest U. (12-15, 6-12 CCC) with 18 points and 4 assists. Blake Solomon, (Jr., Kent, Wash.) added 17 points and 5 assists, while Lucas Ashe (Soph., Spokane, Wash.) and Jason Waltman (Fresh., Monroe, Wash.) added 15 and 14 points respectively. The Eagles shot 60% in the second half and 55.9% for the game from 2-point range and managed 47% shooting from the 3-point line.

“It may be too little too late (getting into the playoffs) for us, but I’m proud of our team,” commented head coach John Van Dyke. “All throughout the season the guys were resilient and coachable and always came to practices and games ready to play.”

 

Cascade (12-14, 5-13 CCC) was led by Erving Adams’ (Sr., Fayetteville, NC) double-double and game high 20 points and 10 rebounds. Jason McCall (Jr., Suisun, Calif.) added 15 points and Kao Saelee (Sr., Fairfield, Calif.) dropped in 12 points and handed out 4 assists for the Thunderbirds. Cascade out rebounded Northwest U., 48-45, including an impressive 29 offensive boards. The T-birds managed 32% shooting from 2-point FG range and only 22% (6-27) from beyond the 3-point arc.

 

Northwest U. will host Warner Pacific in Kirkland tomorrow night and Cascade travels south to Olympia to take on the Evergreen State College. Both games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. tip-offs.