Mountaineers Dominate Late for 63-45 win at Concordia
BOX SCORE - Concordia vs. Eastern Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore.—The Concordia men’s basketball team led No. 3 Eastern Oregon 39-31 with 10:34 left in the game, but went ice cold from there, not making another field goal until 46 seconds remained in the game, while the Mountaineers sprinted past to beat the Cavs 63-45 on Saturday.
Eastern Oregon finished the regular season 27-3 overall and 15-3 in the CCC after the win, while the Cavs finished 15-13 overall and 9-9 in the CCC.
Both teams will make the CCC playoffs, however, though Eastern Oregon lost out on the top seed in the tournament after losing a tiebreaker to Warner Pacific. Consequently, Eastern Oregon will enter the CCC playoffs as the No. 2 seed, while the Cavs enter as the No. 6 seed.
The CCC Quarterfinals will be played Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams. The CCC Quarterfinal matchups are: No. 8 Corban at No. 1 Warner Pacific, No. 7 Oregon Tech at No. 2 Eastern Oregon, No. 6 Concordia at No. 3 Southern Oregon and No. 5 Northwest at No. 4 College of Idaho. The conference will reseed for the CCC Semifinals, which will be played on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Saturday’s game could have given the Cavs momentum heading into the CCC playoffs, but the Cavs’ cold streak at the end of the game denied them that chance. EOU outscored the Cavs 32-6 over the final 10:34 of the game, masking what had been a close game throughout. Neither team had led by more than 10 points before the Mountaineers’ late run, while both teams’ defenses performed well.
The Cavs held the Mountaineers to just 26.1 percent shooting in the first half Saturday, though the Mountaineers returned the favor in the second half by holding the Cavs to just 25.8 percent shooting.
The Mountaineers also took home a big advantage from the free throw line as they shot 22 more free throws and had 20 more free throw makes than the Cavaliers in the game.
Individually, Cody Thurmond led all players with 18 points, thanks largely to going 11-of-14 from the free throw line. Besides him, though, Anthony Brown had a dominant game for the Mountaineers, finishing with a double-double of 13 points and 17 rebounds. Trent Roos also scored in double figures for the Mountaineers as he finished with 14 points in the game.
Meanwhile, Adam Herman led the way again for the Cavs, closing out the CCC scoring title with 16 points against the Mountaineers on Saturday. Outside of Herman, Anthony Holton had 13 points for the Cavs, while Ryan Miller added nine points of the bench.