Oregon Tech defeated No. 6 Warner Pacific College 90-82 at the 4th Annual "Pink Out" event tonight at Danny Miles Court. (photo by Kelly Caleb)
Oregon Tech Holds Off No. 6 Warner Pacific to Claim 90-82 Victory
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Oregon Tech connected on 13 shots from beyond the arch, and held off a tenacious Warner Pacific comeback bid, as the Hustlin’ Owls claimed a 90-82 victory over the sixth-ranked Knights in Cascade Conference men’s basketball action tonight at Danny Miles Court.
Oregon Tech moves to 13-12 overall and 4-9 in conference action, while WPC fell to 18-6 on the season and 9-3 in the CCC standings.
Back-and-forth from the start, the game was tied 13-13 before a Brandon Bautista layup boosted Tech to an 11-0 run. David Clarke capped the run on a triple at the 8:08 mark and the Owls held a 24-13 advantage. Jordan Kiely gave the Owls their largest lead of the game, 30-15, connecting from long range with 6:41 remaining in period 1 before Knights rallied to climb back in.
Stephen Harris connected on a short jumper that got the Knights deficit back to single digits and after a Josh Black 3-pointer with under a minute to play in the half found the bottom of the net WPC trailed by just one point.
David Clarke found a wide open Derek Evans on Tech’s last possession of the first half, as the Owls went into the half up 36-33.
The second half saw the Knights tie the game on three occasions, but Bautista answered with another trey to give Tech a 45-42 advantage with 17:09 on the clock. Tech would hold a lead for good.
Warner Pacific, however, would close to within two points on three separate occasions, the last with 3:31 to play, but the Owls would not let it get closer. With under a minute to play the Owls iced the game on a 10-for-10 effort at the charity stripe to earn a 90-82 victory over the Knights.
The duo of David Clarke and Brandon Bautista combined to hit 9-of-12 shots from long range, as Clarke scored 22 and Bautista 21 in the win for the Owls. Derek Evans added 13 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds and Josh Johnson 10 point. Bautista handed out 6 assists and grabbed 4 boards.
Stephen Harris recorded the games only double-double with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Harris finished 7-for-13 from the floor and 9-of-12 at the charity stripe for the Knights. Doug Thomas followed with 16 points and Marcus Moore 13 in the loss for WPC.