La Grande, Ore. – Eastern Oregon’s JD Esters hit the game-winning shot to give the Mountaineers the win over Oregon Tech, 77-75 in tonight’s first round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament at Quinn Coliseum.
Senior Jason Mumm led the Mountaineers (29-3, 15-3 CCC) with 21 points and 4 rebounds. Trent Roos added 18 points and 8 rebounds.
Oregon Tech (16-15, 7-11 CCC) was led by Kyle Waits with 17 points and 4 assists. Teammates Brandon Bautista and Derek Evens would add 11 points respectively.
Tonight’s match up started out slow as the two teams exchanged baskets early on. It wasn’t until 9:58 left to play in the half that EOU would go on an 8-0 run. Eastern continued to extend their lead by as much as 15, 27-12, at the midway point before OIT went on a 15-0 run of their own to tie the game at 31 with 2:45 left to play. The two teams would go into halftime tied, 33-33.
Eastern shot 8-of-20 (40%) from the field in the first half and 5-of-12 (41%) from downtown. Oregon Tech shot 14-of-34 (41%) from the field and 5-of-19 (26%) from behind the arc.
The Mountaineers came out of the locker room and went on a 7-3 run in the first two minutes of play to extend their lead to 4, 40-36. The Hustlin’ Owls worked their way back to tie the game at 48, and eventually took a 60-55 lead with 9:08 left to play. EOU came back to cut the lead to 3, 59-62 before OIT went on another 5-0 run to lead by 8.
Eastern responded with just 2:23 left to play to extend their lead to as much as three.
With 0:31 seconds to play EOU held a two point lead until OIT’s Waits hit a step back three pointer to put the Hustlin’ Owls up 1, 75-74, with 0:07 seconds left on the clock. Eastern inbounded the ball under their basket and Senior Cody Thurmond found junior JD Esters who knocked down the game-winning three point shot as the buzzer sounded to give the Mountaineers a 77-75 victory.
EOU finished shooting 23-of-44 (52%) from the field and 6-of-17 (35%) from behind the arc. OIT shot 28-of-59 (47%) from the field and 14-of 36 (38%) from behind the three-point line.
Eastern will host #3 Southern Oregon this Saturday, game time is set for 7 pm. Live stats and video will be available at EOUsports.com.