EOU Pulls Away to Down Northwest
KIRKLAND, Wash. – Eastern Oregon shot 50% in the second half to pull away for a 71-48 Cascade Conference win over Northwest University tonight.
Eastern Oregon would maintain the lead the entire first half after Northwest led briefly early in the period and with 5:49 left in the half, Nikki Osborne would get to the basket and put EOU up 12, 29-17. Alyssa Dario would hit a 3-pointer with 1:21 showing on the clock to cut the Mounties lead to 7 at 31-24, but Kassy Larson would get into the lane for a layin with 5 seconds to go to give EOU a 9 point, 33-24 lead going into halftime. Neither team would burn up the nets as NU would be held to 29% shooting and EOU hit 36% of their shots.
NU’s Chanara Greene would tip the ball in 30 seconds into the second half to make it a 7 points ball game, 33-26, but the Eagles would go cold and Eastern Oregon would heat up and outscore Northwest 22-0 to pull away and stretch their lead to 29, 55-26 with 10 minutes to go in the game. The closest the Eagles would come would be 18 as the Mountaineers would post their 9
th win of the season and improve to 2-0 in conference play.
Chanara Greene came off the bench to lead Northwest U. (6-4, 1-1 CCC) with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the double-double. Alyssa Dario scored 7 points for the Eagles who shot a cool 29% for the game going 19 for 66 for the night. NU held a 47-39 edge on the rebounding.
Eastern Oregon (9-3, 2-0 CCC) used balanced scoring with just Brittany Newcomb scoring in double figures with 15 points. Nikki Osborne scored 9 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for the Mountaineers who went 13 for 26 in the second half. Madeline Laan contributed 8 for the Mounties who shot 78% from the free throw line (14-18).
“It was a tough loss against a very good team from Eastern Oregon tonight,” said Ken Crawford, NU head coach. “We need to keep learning and take advantage of these early season games to continue to improve.”