Hogges Leads No. 9 Oregon Tech Past Corban 80-68

2/26/2009 12:53:18 AM

KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON— The Hustlin’ Owls got 20 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 drawn charges along with 2 steals and one block shot from Jguwon Hogges (Atwater, CA) to lead Oregon Tech (26-5) to an 80-68 Quarterfinals win over the Warriors from Corban College (12-17) Wednesday night at Danny Miles Court.

The first half featured 4 ties and 7 lead changes before Tech took a slim 37-35 advantage into the locker room at the break. Corban tied the game early in the second half at 39 but Oregon Tech then began to slowly pull away from the Warriors to win 80-68.

Both teams shot over 50% from the floor for the game wit Tech holding a big advantage in three-point shooting making 9-19 for 47% compared with just 4-15 27% for Corban. The Hustlin’ Owls dominated the boards holding a 35 to 23 advantage led by Josh Wetzler (Perth, Australia) who had a total of 8 boards to bring his career total at Tech to 973.

For the game Tech had 5 players score in double figures led by Hogges 20, followed by 16 from Mike Nieraeth (Bonanza, OR), 12 points from Wetzler, 11 points from Justin Parnell and 10 points from Christian Cavanaugh (Mill Valley, CA). Corban was led in scoring and rebounding by Freshman Erik Cronrath (Battle Ground, WA) who had 20 points and 5 boards. Clay Martin (Beaverton, OR) also had 17 points in a losing effort for the Warriors.

Oregon Tech the No. 1 seed in the Cascade Conference playoffs will now host the No. 6 seed Northwest Christian on Saturday night at 7:30pm. The Beacons upset the No. 3 seed Warner Pacific 64-62 in Portland on Wednesday night.

Tickets for Saturday’s Semifinals match up are on sale right now at oitsports.biz or at the Oregon Tech Athletics office. Reserved ticket holders will have until Thursday at 5:00 pm to claim their seats before they are made available to the general public on Friday morning at 8:00 am. The Athletics office strongly recommends that tickets be purchased online at oitsports.biz

-OIT-