Oregon Tech Tops Men’s Poll and EOU Women Hit Record High
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference made its most significant moves so far this season in the NAIA Div. 2 women’s and men’s basketball Top 25 polls Monday.
The Oregon Tech men (21-2, 10-1 Cascade Conference) received seven first-place votes and moved from No. 2 to No. 1 in the country. The Owls defeated The College of Idaho and previously-ranked No. 25 Eastern Oregon University Saturday and Sunday to take the country’s top spot. It is the first time since 2009 OIT sits at No. 1.
Oregon Tech has spent 15-straight polls ranked in the top 10, dating back to Jan. 10, 2011, and has been in the Top 25 a national-best 82 straight weeks. The last time the Hustlin’ Owls were not ranked was on Jan. 11, 2005. The top-ranking is the 13th for Tech since 2000, which is second most in NAIA Div. 2.
The Owls travel to Warner Pacific College Saturday. The Knights (17-4, 9-1) remained No. 8 in the country following its overtime win at Concordia. Northwest University (18-2, 8-2) went from No. 12 to No. 11 after its home win over Corban Sunday. Southern Oregon sits three spots out of the Top 25 with 45 votes, while EOU received three votes.
In the women’s poll, Eastern Oregon (17-4, 9-2) reached a school-record ranking of No. 8. The highest rating in the history of its women’s basketball program came after a pair of difficult road wins at Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech Saturday and Sunday.
Eastern's previous high was reached in the third rating of the season at No. 9. EOU has won six of its last seven games and was named the conference team of the week Sunday. The Mountaineers welcome Northwest and Evergreen Friday and Saturday to La Grande.
The conference also had Corban University (14-5, 8-2) in the top 25. The Warriors went from No. 15 to No. 14 following their come from behind win at Northwest Sunday. The College of Idaho is two spots out of the poll. Oregon Tech and Warner Pacific are five and eight spots away from cracking the Top 25.
More information on the upcoming weekend will follow in the conference weekly reports which will be released Wednesday. All CCC basketball games can be viewed with free live video streaming with links on CascadeConference.org.