Brent Johnson was 7-of-9 shooting, finishing with 16 points, three rebounds and three steals in 90-63 over Corban tonight in the CCC semifinal round. (photo by Kelly Caleb)
Oregon Tech Takes Out Corban in Conference Semifinals
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Oregon Tech got one step closer to a third straight Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament title with a 90-63 win over sixth-seeded Corban University tonight in the CCC semifinals at Danny Miles Court.
Oregon Tech moves to 28-4 on the season, while Corban ends the year at 18-14. The eighth-ranked Owls ran their home win streak to 56 straight and will host Eastern Oregon, a winner tonight over Northwest 83-73, in the CCC finals on Tuesday, March 1st at 7 p.m.
A Scotty Riddle offensive rebound and basket with 14:20 on the clock gave Oregon Tech a 17-8 advantage, but Corban would battle back to trail just 24-21 with nine minutes until the half.
Both OIT and Corban went scoreless over the next four minutes of play, before a Joseph Foster free-throw put the Owls up four points. Oregon Tech would manage a seven point lead on two occasions, before heading into intermission holding on to a 32-29 lead.
Oregon Tech managed to bump the lead back up to seven points to open up the second half, but Corban would not go away, pulling to within two points, 40-38, with 16 minutes remaining to play.
Corban would never get closer, and after OIT pushed their advantage to 54-45, nearing the midway point, a 15-0 run gave the home team a 69-45 lead with seven minutes to play.
The Owls would lead by as many as 31 points, on three occasions, before settling for the 90-63 win.
Joseph Foster led Tech with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Brent Johnson was 7-for-9 from the field scoring 16 points, followed by Scotty Riddle and Mihajlo Matic with 11 points each. Kyle Gomez grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to go with eight points and four assists.
Erik Cronrath led all scorers with 28 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go with four rebounds in the loss for Corban. Jordan Carter finished with 19 points.